Royal Navy scrambles warship as Russia sends nuke armada to stalk UK coast in chilling ‘coronation show of force’

THE Royal Navy has scrambled a warship to follow the Russian armada lurking dangerously close to the UK. The Type 23 frigate has set sail for the North Sea to tail the Russian warships capable of carrying nuclear weapons and attempting to put putting on a show off force ahead of King Charles’ coronation. PA:Press AssociationA Royal Navy Type 23 frigate was scrambled to shadow the Russian armada (file picture)[/caption] H I SuttonOne of the warships leaving the Baltic to head towards UK waters[/caption] Norwegian Armed ForcesThe Russian destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov pictured sailing towards the North Sea yesterday[/caption] Norwegian Armed ForcesThe Russian support tanker Kama pictured yesterday sailing to join the flotilla[/caption] Five Russian warships plus two support vessels popped up today in the waters off the UK and all are equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles. A UK defence source said told The Sun this morning: “We are aware of a small number of Russian vessels which are exercising around the UK and are monitoring the situation closely.” Now, navy chiefs have scrambled a Type 23 frigate armed with harpoon anti-ship missiles to shadow the dangerous Russian flotilla. A source told The Sun that the Russian warships converged in the North Sea from their multiple bases in a deliberate show of force. The sabre-rattling drills were deliberately timed to coincide with King Charles’s coronation, the defence source said. The RAF scrambled Poseidon P-8 maritime patrol aircraft alongside Norwegian and US allies to track the warships as record numbers of world leaders swooped into London for Saturday’s extravaganza. Unusually the Russian group includes a frigate from the Black Sea Fleet, naval expert H.I Sutton said. The ship has been prevented from returning to its base in Crimea due to the war because Turkey has closed the Bosporus to warships, he explained. The Russian flotilla is made up of the the frigate the Admiral Grigorovich, the corvettes Sbrazitelnyy, Stoikiy and Odintsovo, along with the tug Grebelsky and tanker Kama. The Kalibr is a Russian land attack cruise missile with an range of up to 1,500 miles. The missile can carry 1,100lb of conventional explosives or a thermonuclear warhead, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies ‘Missile Threat’ data base. It has become a mainstay in the Russian Navy’s ground-strike capabilities and has been widely used in Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Kalibr was first used in action by the Russians in Syria in 2015, when they were fired at forces fighting dictator Bashar al-Assad. The presence of the Russian warships comes after RAF Typhoons scrambled to intercept a Russian spy plane flying close to UK airspace. The Tu-142 aircraft – known as a Bear-F – flew in international airspace over the Norwegian Sea and North Atlantic Ocean north of Scotland on Sunday. At no point did the Russian aircraft enter UK airspace, the RAF said. It comes as Nato allies run a major submarine hunting exercise in the adjacent Norwegian Sea. The Royal Navy, Norway, Germany and America have all deployed hunter-killer attack submarines as part of the Nato drills with warships from Denmark, France, Iceland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain. Not long ago, a Russian spy plane and two fighter jets were sent packing by RAF and German Typhoons protecting the eastern flank of Nato’s border, near Estonia. Earlier this year Royal Navy warships intercepted a Russian warship carrying Putin’s new “unstoppable” 7,000mph hypersonic missiles. HMS Portland tracked the guided missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov as it sailed close to the UK in the North Sea. The Type-23 frigate shadowed Vladimir Putin’s warship that set sail with much fanfare for a mission to the Atlantic. Admiral Gorshkov – which weights up to 5,400 tons and is 442ft long – had carried out war games while heading for the UK. Zircon missiles she is carrying on board have not yet been used in combat and they are one of Putin’s “super weapons”. It recently emerged a British spy plane narrowly avoided being shot down by a Russian missile that malfunctioned. The Russian jet was flying above the Black Sea when its pilot believed he had permission to fire, according to the secret US intelligence report. The pilot then locked on to the spy plane and launched a missile. ITAR-TASS News AgencyA Kalibr missile being fired from a Russian warship[/caption]