Free Republic

A Russian spy ship was spotted patrolling off the East Coast of the United States on Tuesday morning, the first such instance during the Trump administration -- and the same day it was learned the Kremlin had secretly deployed controversial cruise missiles inside Russia and flew within 200 yards of a U.S. Navy destroyer, U.S. officials told Fox News. The Russian ship was in international waters, 70 miles off the coast of Delaware and heading north at 10 knots, according to one official. The U.S. territory line is 12 nautical miles.

A Russian intelligence-gathering ship has been operating off the U.S. East Coast and near the Gulf of Mexico for the past month, the Pentagon said Thursday. “We are aware that the Russian ships Viktor Leonov and Nikolay Chiker are currently operating in waters that are beyond U.S. territorial seas but near Cuba,” said Lt. Col. Tom Crosson, a Pentagon spokesman. “We respect the freedom of all nations, as reflected in international law, to operate military vessels beyond the territorial seas of other nations.” The Leonov is an intelligence gathering ship outfitted with high-tech electronic spying gear. The Chiker is an...

The Democratic National Convention’s final night included a stirring tribute to America’s veterans from a retired naval four-star admiral, complete with a backdrop of jets flying over a row of proud warships. But convention organizers may soon regret it. Norman Polmar, author of “The Naval Institute Guide to the Soviet Navy” and other military handbooks, told the Navy Times on Tuesday that the ships were Russian vessels. “The ships are definitely Russian,” Polmar told the military newspaper. “There’s no question of that in my mind.” The ships depicted in the Democrats’ backdrop had radar designs that the U.S. fleet doesn’t...

While Russian admirals have been talking about building six aircraft carriers in the next decade, the president of Russia has recently ordered them to concentrate on smaller ships for the Black and Baltic Seas. The Black Sea fleet has been continually declining since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. That decline is the result of new countries (like Ukraine and Georgia) inheriting old Soviet ships and bases. That was the dissolution deal. Whatever Soviet weapons or bases were normally were, belonged to one of the 14 new nations. Most of Russia’s high seas ships were based in northern Russia (the...