Submarine warning as Royal Navy Achilles heel means Putin ‘can strike UK’ | World | News
A former Royal Navy chief has warned that Britain is lagging behind Russia in a key respect in which Russia could strike Britain or the US. Retired Rear Admiral John Aitken, general manager of underwater systems services at technology firm Thales and former deputy director of submarines for the British navy, appeared before the House of Commons Defense Select Committee on February 10 and spoke about submarine warfare in the polar seas.
He said the UK had “very limited capacity under ice”, adding that the country needed to reinvest in it. Russia will send Ship, Submarine, Ballistic, Nuclear (SSBN) forces to the High North – Arctic regions and adjacent North Atlantic regions, including the Barents Sea, Greenland and Norway, under ice as it makes them harder to track and trace.
Aitken added: “We also know that they have the ability to penetrate the ice and then launch missiles at Europe or North America, which reduces response time. Although people think the polar seas are incredibly quiet, they’re not; they’re really noisy because of all the ice movement, and it’s a very difficult environment to operate.”
Commodore Atiken said another advantage the Russians have is their ability to “ice-break” (sitting by pressing the fin to the bottom of the ice), which makes it difficult to distinguish submarines from their ice keels.
The expert told MPs: “They have a wide range of capabilities, including diesel-electric submarines, which gives them a choice of how to act.
“I think their activities in the submarine fleet will cover all wars, starting from initial shaping operations; we are talking about GUGI platforms that deal with their critical national infrastructure, but they can also attack ours.”
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The former commodore believes Britain has a seven-day gas reserve; This means an attack by the Kremlin on Britain’s national infrastructure “could have a significant impact”.
He added: “If you can impact online systems by attacking wires and processes, that can have a significant impact and erode people’s will to fight or be resilient within a country. “There are options.
“So if you talk about undeniable potential in terms of offensive capability, Kalibr missiles will be fired from submarines.
“They have deep strike and the ability to conduct gray zone operations (or whatever the term is now) and then attack land, surface and submarine targets. They are a very capable navy.”
