AIBU to think a Russian ship firing in home waters matters?

[Gizzaeycon]

Shouldn’t we all be making a bit more fuss about the fact that a Russian ship fired at a British boat in home waters? That’s a very serious thing to happen, right?

Having previously served a lengthy time in the Royal Navy the procedure the Royal Navy follows in the event of a small vessel considered threatening encroaching is to firstly hail on channel 16, then sound warning blasts on the horn, fire flares and leading onto warning shots across the bow which will get closer to the threatening vessel before finally lethal action. This looks pretty similar to what the Russian warship has done. They also had their AIS transponder turned off so are on operations and thus at a heightened level of readiness. This is a nothing incident.

But what happened is still unusual.
I mean, while you were serving for a lengthy time in the Royal Navy how many times did your ship give or receive warning shots across the bow?

The ageism on this thread is pretty bad.

What evidence do people have that they are ‘dozy’ or that being pensioners means they are incompetent?

Most yachties arent stupid enough to get that close to any ship never mind a military ship

And if they did accidentally they would alter course noticeably the moment they realised

And if they couldn't control their vessel they would make sure they were on the radio long before they got close to any ships

In this case though, shots were not ‘across the bow’

a) the fact they got so close to the ship
b) the fact they didn't clearly and decisively alter course
c) the fact they were communicating on the radio

Due to age?

Why was the Russian ship drifting?

I've just skim read the thread and I can only see two references to their age?

They are the same age as my parents who still sail regularly, there's no ageism from me just total shock at the number of poor decisions it took for them to end up in that situation

I agree it appears unusual to the general public especially when whipped up by the media however from a military perspective i understand what has happened which is why I spelled it out as it is a standard kind of escalation procedure. They felt threatened for some reason as are on operations related to their shadow fleet (I presume) and scared the encroaching yacht away but then there was no further action from them when the yacht finally took the hint. You have to also place this in the context that Ukraine have been driving small drone boats into their fleet packed with explosives. Warships set up an exclusion zone around them which they will defend when on operations.

Its a small craft suited for intercepting people smugglers or drug shipments.

It is wholly unsuited to confronting a russian frigate, which comprehensively outmatches it in both size and arnament.

Yes, it can shadow a frigate, but could never confront it - as it showed when it failed to confront the russians after firing shots - and so whats the point of shadowing it at all?

Its only to keep up a threadbare pretence of a functioning navy.

The russians fired the warning shots purely to demonstrate that their shadow could or would do nothing in response.

It was in the English Channel this happened.

The russians fired the warning shots purely to demonstrate that their shadow could or would do nothing in response.
It was in the English Channel this happened.

Given it appears the Russian vessel was in international waters I'm still not sure what people think the Royal Navy should have done.

So not home waters, nor a rowing boat then. Thanks for correcting your previous bullshit

BS. Was the warship supposed to sit quiet and let the yacht crash into it and the yacht's crew potentially drown? If you are a big ship in a busy and dangerous shipping lane it is absolutely your responsibility to warn more vulnerable vessels not to endanger themselves by getting too close.

I was an infrequent leisure sailor and yes I've seen the navy handle yachts that were pissing about in a dangerous manner - the Russian warship's actions do not strike me as worrying or indeed excessive

The Kelvey couple, interviewed in Dieppe, Mrs Kelvey as spokesperson,
declared that they had been sailing for 16 years, were on their way to France
and “it was our right of way” - so there you have it -
the Frigate would have been warning them as the Kelvey’s didn’t give way
and were on a collision course.

Someone ask the Kelvey couple if on a motorway they steadily stay in the
middle lane doing 68mph.

Vilifying the Captain/crew of a Frigate in International Waters sounding an alarm
to a smaller more vulnerable yacht was more a concerned courtesy than an act
of aggression.

They could be related to the pig headed couple captured by pirates off the coast
of Somalia, sure they would be safe and unmolested, heedless of all advice to the contrary.

Older people have slower responses, can be hearing impaired without even knowing,
bloodymindedness is not confined to an age group (two year olds can do it)

Oh grow up, I was making a joke with the "rowing boat" as would have been obvious to anyone who was not an utter clown.

And sorry to say, the part of the english channel where this happened is UK terroritial waters. Why would a UK ship be shadowing anything in French waters? Silly billy.

Maybe sit this one out and leave it to people who know what they are talking about 😉

Yes they could have used their radio, a flare or siren to warn the yacht.

Or they could have sent their organic helicopter unit to warn it off.

But instead they chose to fire weapons in our territorial waters....to prove that they could do so without consequence.

Cherbourg, not Dieppe. Accuracy matters.

It was in international waters. Not English or French. And the Navy does shadow Russian warships through the channel routinely

Thanks for calling me a Silly Billy. My nan used to call me that and you just brought back some lovely memories

Well thats a lovely, heart warming point to end our discussion on then.

The points I made were fully robust, splitting hairs over a facetious joke doesn't change that.

They tried the radio, the yacht didn’t respond.

They used their siren, the yacht changed course by two degrees which is so small it would not have registered.

The Russians then fired into the air, not at the yacht, and the yacht finally turned.

This was not in our territorial waters.

Happy to help.

So they didnt try a flare or their helicopter?

Both much less provocative options that firing weapons.

@BlueSherbet I thought they used flares after the sirens.

You got your facts wrong, then doubled down on them.