Tag Archives: Viktor Leonov

Russki spooks off Florida Coast again

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Looks like the darling of the Russian Navy, the Vishnya-class intelligence collection ship Viktor Leonov (SSV-175) is poking around the waters off Kings Bay, Georgia and the Northern Florida Coast doing its part to keep tabs via SIGINT and COMINT as well as her extensive sonar suite on the goings on of the U.S. Navy’s boomers opertaing in the Atlantic.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, Lenonov, a 3500-ton frigate sized AGI originally built in Poland back when the Warsaw Pact was seen and being seen to be doing her thing.

“It’s been all in international waters and all perfectly legal,” said a defense official familiar with efforts to monitor the ship. “But it’s interesting that it is operating, collecting on us where it is.”

This week, the Leonov was spotted anchored about 22 miles off the Florida coast, southeast of Kings Bay.

It reportedly left Cuba on Jan. 22, and its movements since then have not been made public.

The Russkis are still out there…treading water off Florida

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A pair of Soviet  Russian spyboats have been operating off the US East Coast for the past couple months

The craft, the Viktor Leonov and Nikolay Chiker are not your typical warships.

The Viktor Lenonov is a shadowy Vishnya class (also known as the Meridian class)  of intelligence collection ships built for the Soviet Navy in the 1980s at Gdansk.

The ships continue in service with the Russian Navy. The Soviet designation is Project 864. At 3500-tons they are about the size of a frigate but are much slower (16-knots). While armed with light weapons for self-defense, their primary duty is soaking up  SIGINT and COMINT electronic intelligence via an extensive array of sensors.

Lenonov (photo credit Shipspotting http://cdn2.shipspotting.com/photos/middle/5/7/1/1656175.jpg)

Lenonov (photo credit Shipspotting)

Accompanying the Lenonov is the 5200-ton ocean-going fleet tug, Nikolay Chiker. This craft is even slower, at 13-knots than her partner, but their mission is not a high-speed one.

Chiker (photo credit Shipspotting http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1987840)

Chiker (photo credit Shipspotting)

As some have pointed out, “Russians keep tugs (and sometimes salvage vessels as well) stationed forward where their deployed ships and submarines are operating.  This has been the case for decades, as I can attest.  And it may be, as Galrahn suggests, that Nikolay Chiker’s operations are indicative of the presence in the Western Atlantic of a Russian submarine or two”

Chiker-map-1

The two boats have been operating in, around and through a couple interesting US fleet operational areas. These include the SSBN base at Kings Bay Georgia, the Naval Base at Guantanamo, and the low-key AUTEC range in the Bahamas where the Navy tests all their underwater goodies at.

As these are traditional areas of US sub operations, you can be sure that the Viktor Leonov and Nikolay Chiker (as well as any unseen buddies of theirs below the surface) have the cameras rolling and ears listening.

Of course, right now we probably have SSNs just outside the territorial waters of Russia near Vladivostok, Polyarny, and Petropavlask, but hey, that’s just how it is.

And the beat goes on…