The Russian Kilo-class submarines, considered by British military experts as a “considerable threat”, tracked the British vessel, armed with Tomahawk missiles, which was within firing range of Syria, The Sunday Times reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry hasn’t yet commented on “Black Holes”, which carry an impressive arsenal of cruise and anti-ship missiles, as well as torpedoes.
The game continued for several days, making it impossible for the British sub to get into place to launch its missiles. The US Navy had to send out a Boeing P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft to track the Russian subs and protect its British ally.
According to The Sunday Times, tensions between Moscow and London reached boiling point, because the British Navy failed to fulfill the orders issued to the Astute’s submarine crew.
They were supposed to launch cruise missiles at Syria from the eastern Mediterranean, but the British failed since they were locked in a “cat-and-mouse” pursuit by Russian submarines and several warships.
This version does not fit London’s statements about their “brilliantly executed operation”. Some fascinating details have surfaced about how the British had prepared for this attack against Syria for days, and were sure that their subs would remain undetected. However, they failed to even enter the assigned location for the Tomahawk launch site because they could never pinpoint the Russian presence in that same sector.
They simply missed it each time one or even two of the “Black Holes” moved towards them.
Similar reports of a failed mission have surfaced in France. The Rafale aircraft deployed to Syria to hit the country’s facilities on Saturday morning failed to fire all their missiles.
“Of the ten Scalp-EG missiles planned, only nine are gone,” the French air force said on Wednesday night, confirming rumors circulating since Saturday in the informed circles, French weekly Le Point reported.
“Is it due to the missile or the plane? We do not know, and technical analysis is underway to determine the origin of the shooting incident, ” said the army. Each Rafale carried two missiles, and one of them managed to fire only one. However, “all targets have been dealt with” with other missiles, say the military.
Reacting to information published by Lettre A, the French Navy also admitted to having had problems getting its naval cruise missiles (MdCN) from its FREMM multi-mission frigates.
It meant that the crew had to restart the computer system, an operation that would have exceed the time limit to respect the firing time.
Only three of the six planned MdCNs could be launched. It was the baptism of fire for these new generation missiles, which was supposed to bring France into the closed club of countries with cruise missiles on board warships, together with the United States, Russia and Great Britain.
The operation, however, was presented as a total success by President Emmanuel Macron and by the Minister of Armies Florence Parly, but it did not unfold very smoothly. Twelve missiles hit their target, while sixteen seem to have been planned initially. “All French missiles have reached their target,” assured the minister on Saturday at a press gathering in Paris, ignoring the number of missiles initially planned.
Seventeen planes had been deployed from France for the weekend’s strikes: five Rafale and four Mirage 2000-5 aircraft, as well as two AWACS radar aircraft and six tanker aircraft.
Exceptionally, Paris had assumed the tactical command of the air operation for the coalition of three states. For the maritime component, France dispatched five first-rate frigates: three multi-mission frigates (FREMMs), as well as an anti-submarine frigate, an anti-aircraft frigate and a tanker.
