UK ‘behind the curve’ on Russian undersea spying, former minister says

The comments came after it was revealed the navy had captured Russian sensors suspected of trying to spy on Britain’s nuclear submarines

Britain’s navy needs a huge expansion of its surveillance capability, warning the UK is “behind the curve” in tracking Russia’s undersea operations. a former minister has said.

Tobias Ellwood made the comments after it was revealed the navy had captured a number of Russian sensors suspected of trying to spy on Britain’s nuclear submarines.

The existence of the sensors was revealed by The Sunday Times, which reported several sensors were discovered after they washed ashore.

The Times reported the devices were believed to have been placed in the seas around Britain to gather information on the UK’s four nuclear-armed Vanguard submarines.

The discovery of the sensors was deemed a national security threat, the publication reported, and has not been confirmed by the government.

Mr Ellwood, a former foreign office and defence minister, told The Guardian the report confirmed that the UK was “now in a greyzone war with Russia”.

Russia has been trying to spy on the UK’s nuclear-armed Vanguard submarines, according to reports (Getty Images)

The former Conservative MP said the sensors were only “half the story”, and claimed that Russia had built “remote seabed platforms” around the UK coast to allow mini submarines to recharge.

Those submarines, he said, are used by the Kremlin “to map our undersea cable network for potential sabotage”.

Mr Ellwood said that because 90 per cent of the UK’s data comes through undersea cables and 60 per cent of Britain’s gas comes through one line from Norway, the UK was vulnerable to “enormous” damage from sabotage. He said the damage would also be “deniable and it’s cheap to do”.

While the UK commissioned a deep-sea surveillance vessel in 2023, the RFA Proteus, Mr Ellwood said it was “just one ship and given the threat from this greyzone capability we are going to need half a dozen of these vessels if not more”.

The Times reported that “unmanned Russian vehicles” had been found hovering around deep-sea communications cables, and that the government was looking at making energy and technology companies work more closely with the military to protect underwater infrastructure.

A senior military figure told the publications: “There should be no doubt, there is a war raging in the Atlantic. This is a game of cat and mouse that has continued since the ending of the Cold War, and is now heating up again. We are seeing phenomenal amounts of Russian activity.”

Less than a fortnight ago, the Royal Navy shadowed three Russian ships through the English Channel, including an oceanographic survey ship that has previously been accused of involvement in an operation to map Britain’s critical undersea infrastructure.

Defence Secretary John Healey revealed in January that the Navy had been tracking a Russian spy ship through the Channel, and warned Vladimir Putin the government was watching Russian activity in British waters.

“We see you,” he warned at the time.