Revealing covert Russian operation 'will help deter attacks on undersea cables', says defence secretary

The defence secretary says the decision to reveal a covert Russian operation in the North Atlantic will help deter attacks on vital undersea cables.

Aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth were involved in tracking three submarines off the UK’s northern coast for a month.

The attack submarine and two spy submarines, both from Russia, have since left UK waters.

John Healey said there was no evidence of any damage as he took part in a Q&A session in London on Friday.

He said the submarines had been carrying out a covert operation near crucial cables and pipelines that the UK relies on for communications and energy.

Healey called out Putin in a bid to reassure the public that the UK has not taken its eyes off the threat from Russia, as well as demonstrating that UK forces are ready when required.

He added that declassifying the information rules out the possibility of Putin trying to wriggle out of responsibility should anything happen to the cables or pipelines.

“We know that Russia operates with deniability, we’ve seen the way that in the Baltic cables have been cut by suspect Russian-linked vessels,” he said on Friday.

“What we did yesterday was to say to Putin, we’re watching you, we’re exposing you, and if there is any damage to our cables and our pipelines, then you haven’t got that deniability that allows you to pursue the sort of playbook that we’ve seen of the hybrid warfare from Putin.”

Healey also announced on Friday he’s to spend another £100m on submarine-hunting aircraft, like the Poseidon P8, based at RAF Lossiemouth.

The UK already has nine of these aircraft on regular patrols, which drop sonar buoys looking for submarines.

He also said he’ll launch the Atlantic Bastion programme to create a “British-built hybrid naval force”.

And he sent a warning to Vladimir Putin – that any action to damage the UK’s infrastructure would come with serious consequences.