The Defence Forces have mounted a hush hush surveillance operation – to monitor a Russian research ship off the Irish coast, it has emerged.
The Mirror has established that a state of the art Air Corps surveillance plane as well as a Naval Service ship were involved in the operation off the Cork coast on Monday.
The €5 million PC-12 Spectre Air Corps plane was sent from Casement Aerodrome in south Dublin to monitor the Akademik Boris Petrov as it moved through Irish waters off the coast.
The plane, which was one of four purchased by the Air Corps at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020, boasts an array of high tech surveillance equipment that the crew used to follow the controversial ship.
And it’s also understood a Naval Service vessel based at Haulbowline base in Cork was also despatched to the area to monitor the ship.
The vessel left its base in the eastern Russian enclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic coast and is heading to Brazil – but its movements have attracted attention from observers who are suggesting it may be monitoring undersea cables used for critical communications infrastructure.
Just last week, defence bloggers noted that the ship passed Britain’s northerly Shetland islands a few hours after they suffered an internet black out.
However no evidence of any such connection has been made public at this stage.
But the area of the Irish waters were the ship passed close to on Monday contains vital undersea internet cable connecting Europe to America – and the Defence Forces took no chances.
They mounted the special operation to keep an eye on the ship as it passed through our waters.
A Defence Forces spokeswoman declined to comment on Monday night.
“We do not comment on ongoing operations,” she said.
In January, the military mounted a similar operation to monitor Russian Naval ships that were planning to hold a live fire exercise in Irish-controlled waters.
The exercise was later cancelled after a storm of protest.
READ NEXT :
- Heavy rain to hit Ireland again with surprising temperatures in store
Irish hiker dies after ten meter fall in the Tramuntana Mountains in Mallorca
I'm A Celebrity returns in matter of weeks as show heads back to Australia
Social welfare October bank holiday payment date changes with some paid early
Peter Andre shows fallen bricks from roof as his house is struck by lightning
Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter
