In May 2018, the UK’s Channel 5 during the filming of the Royal Navy captured an interesting video of Royal Navy warship HMS Duncan being buzzed by 17 Russian fighter jets in the Black Sea near the coast of Crimea.
The video presents several of the Russian Navy’s fighter jets like Su-30SM Flanker derivative and Su-24 Fencer jets passing by the area of the HMS Duncan.
These jets which were mix of fighter jets of the Russian Navy were show coming close to the HMS Duncan. The crew members of the vessel were worried that if these jets came any closer the ship’s high powered radar could cause malfunction to the jets’ radars and cause them to crash.
The naval officers on board the vessel issued a warning to the Russian fighter jets out of fear that the planes might attack the ship.
One of the communitarian technicians issued the warning towards, “we are operating high powered radars. For your own safety we request you to remain two miles outside of our range”.
The documentary which was initially being filmed was titled as “Warship: Life at Sea”. Many of the Duncan’s crew members said that they thought that this was some kind of waning by Moscow to NATO.
One of the sailors aboard the vessel presented his thoughts that they would have never attacked us. He said, “They had 17 aircrafts and we had 48 missiles so I think we would have won that”.
Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said, “HMS Duncan is the flagship of NATO and being such a ship it has faced the brazen Russian hostility when these aircrafts buzzed overhead. This ship which has played the vital role in protection of the allies during British, American, and French strikes against Syrian chemical weapons facilities, had been stalked many times by Russian spy ships.”
Commodore Mike Utley, who is the in charge of the NATO Task Force from HMS Duncan said to media, “I think that their tactic is naïve as they don’t know what this ship is capable of.”
HMs Duncan was launched by Royal Navy in 2010 and is named after the 18th century Royal Navy admiral; Viscount Adam Duncan. The ship is currently stationed in Portsmouth.
Watch the video of the footage captured by the Channel 5 crew aboard the HMS Duncan.
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