Dramatic moment Royal Navy warship hits submerged Russian hunter-killer submarine – World News

The dramatic moment a Royal Navy warship collided with a Russian submarine was filmed.

The Moscow hunter-killer, capable of carrying nuclear-tipped torpedoes, moved in a sonar line in the North Atlantic towed by HMS Northumberland.

At the time of impact – possibly the first of its kind since the Cold War – a crew member can be heard saying “What did I just hit?”

The footage was captured by a camera crew for Channel 5’s Warship: Life at Sea TV show.

Leading the way, Commander Thom Hobbs said: “We are very close to the submarine, we are probably parallel.

“If they were on the surface, we would definitely see faces.”

Following the incident, the British crew were forced to abandon the mission and return to base for repairs.

This came as tensions between London and Moscow escalated, following the investigation into the Russian poison attack from Novichok to Salisbury.

The British Type 23 frigate had been dispatched to search for the Russian submarine about 200 miles north of Scotland.

He took out his towed sonar – a cable covered with hydrophones – to listen to the sounds of the submarine.

But the crew aborted their mission and returned to port for repairs after the cable, as thick as a drainpipe, was “dragged over the hull of the submarine.”

“It was badly chewed and unusable,” said a source The sun.

Former Commander Tom Sharpe said: “The question is whether it was deliberate or was it an accident.”

He wondered if it was a tight pass that had gone awry.

A Defense Ministry spokesperson said: “At the end of 2020, a Russian submarine followed by HMS Northumberland came into contact with its towed sonar. “

Both ships are believed to have been damaged in the collision.

It comes as Liz Truss warned that Russia had “no justification” for its aggression against Ukraine, ahead of a week “absolutely critical” for the peace and security of Europe.

The foreign minister, who plans to visit Kiev later this month, told lawmakers that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “peddled” the “false story” of a security threat in the region to which the Kremlin reacts.

She insisted that any Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a “massive strategic error” and “would have a very high cost,” including the prospect of “coordinated sanctions” to harm the country’s interests and economy. .

Europe must also reduce its dependence on Russian gas, the foreign minister said.