Royal Navy Shadows Russian Warships In North Sea

The two Russian warships (Picture: Royal Navy/LPhot Dan Rosenbaum). 

A Royal Navy ship has shadowed two Russian warships in the North Sea as they approached the English Channel.

HMS Montrose sailed up the Channel from Plymouth to meet with corvettes RFS Boikiy and Stoikiy as they entered the North Sea - the Royal Navy say they were making a transit through the English Channel. 

Montrose met the two Steregushchiy-class corvettes and continued to monitor their progress off the Danish and Dutch coasts.

After crossing the majority of the North Sea, the corvettes dramatically cut their speed and slowly proceeded towards the north Norfolk coast under the watch of HMS Montrose at the end of last week. 

Montrose has recently had a £38 million refit, followed by trials and training including the successful firing of the UK's new air defence system, Sea Ceptor.

For this mission, the frigate was equipped with a a new Fleet Air Arm Wildcat helicopter from 825 Naval Air Squadron which was used to record images of the two Russian vessels. 

While Montrose followed the progress of the Russian ships, the RAF provided air support to watch over the operation.

Montrose will continue to escort the Russian Warships through the busy English Channel before they continue on their deployment.