© AP Photo/ VICTORIA AROCHO
Conducting a routine scientific study of ocean environments, a lone Russian research vessel has attracted a lot of attention from the Pentagon.
Despite the fact that it's moving through international waters, the Yantar is being monitored by US Navy ships, aircraft, and even reconnaissance satellites.Last May, the Russian Navy christened its latest oceanographic research vessel. Built for deep sea research and rescue operations, it's currently conducting operations in the Atlantic Ocean.
"The
Yantar is equipped with a unique on-board scientific research complex which enables it to collect data on the ocean environment, both in motion and on hold," said Alexei Burilichev, head of the deepwater research department at the Russian Defense Ministry. "There are no similar complexes anywhere."
But despite the
Yantar's peaceful purpose, its presence has put the US military on high-alert.
Senior defense officials speaking to Fox News say they have been monitoring the vessel since it was first spotted by satellites in the North Atlantic, believing it to be a spy ship.
Now that it's nearing its destination of Cuba, officials have raised panic over the fact that the
Yantar is 300 miles off the coast of a US submarine base in Kings Bay, Georgia. Never mind that the ship's location is in international waters and part of an ordinary sea route to Cuba.
© Sputnik/ Igor ZaremboLaunching oceanographic ship Yantar.
According to the
Washington Free Beacon, Pentagon officials believe that the ship's research equipment is being used to surveil the seafloor for sensors, and may even be cutting underwater communication cables.
"It seems more likely they'd use their underwater sensors to map out defenses to prepare for future operations, and to avoid, blind, or destroy the sensors," Steffan Watkins, an intelligence analyst who monitors Russian ship movements, told the
Free Beacon.
No justification was offered for those claims, and officials gave no indications that any cables were, in fact, severed. The Pentagon would surely notice that kind of damage immediately.
These suspicions seem to be based entirely on the fact that the
Yantar contains gear capable of cutting cables, but as the
Free Beacon points out, those are "used to rescue submarines if they become entangled" in underwater obstacles.
This could in fact be a case of the US military projecting its own actions onto others.When asked by
Fox News if the US used scientific research vessels to conduct covert reconnaissance missions, an anonymous senior defense official gave an interesting response.
"Of course we do," he said, "what do you think all those 'oceanographic ships' are doing, studying whales?"US intelligence will likely continue to monitor the
Yantar as it continues its operations.
Seriously, I'm getting really tired of their games. So if these morons want to go and blow seven shades of crap out of each other, I say let them go ahead and get it over with...
That way those of us that still have some sanity can then get on with sorting out the mess the morons always leave behind. The world may actually have a chance at being a better place without these paranoid idiots in it.
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My apologise... Every so often, the morons do something stupid and I just have to vent... Sorry !!!