UK military to counter ‘Russia threat’ in North Atlantic
The UK military is planning to expand its presence in the North Atlantic in an attempt to curb what the Royal Navy’s commander says is a growing threat from Russia.
First Sea Lord Admiral Philip Jones told Sky News in his first major television interview that the British armed forces were going to form a new Joint Area of Operations (JAO) that will focus on the North Atlantic region.
This will allow the navy and the Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft to conduct missions in the region on a more regular basis.
"This is a resurgence that has come very quickly,” Jones said, noting that the move was in response to a growing Russian influence in the region.
"It is an intensifying resurgence of capability and scale that we didn't necessarily see coming maybe 10 years ago. We have had to respond to that - it is also very modern, it is very capable,” he said of Russia’s military might.
"The signature of their vessels, their deploy-ability, their capability is very impressive. They've clearly been investing in the research and development to be able to do this," the admiral added.
According to Jones, the new operations center will be tasked with protecting the vital undersea lines that transmit an estimated 97% of global communications and carry an estimated $10 trillion (£7.5tn) in financial transactions every day.
"We are aware Russians have the capability to detect and work on those cables and of course they are doing this in very difficult environmental conditions, at very great depth," Jones said.
"It's not easy to work out exactly what's going on. We have to assess what they're doing. We have to track what they're doing, we have to monitor what they're doing both on and below the surface, and we seek to do that,” he argued.
The announcement by Jones comes weeks after the US announced the re-establishment of the US 2nd Fleet -- a Cold War command disbanded in 2011 -- to patrol the North Atlantic, also as a response to Russia.
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