US, Canada Shadowing Russian Flotilla Heading to Cuba

(Getty Images)

Open source maritime and aerial tracking data has revealed that U.S. and Canadian naval and air assets have been shadowing a flotilla of Russian warships off Florida’s Atlantic coast on its way to Cuba.

Last week, Russia sent three ships and a nuclear-powered submarine to the Caribbean for what U.S. officials said would be a set of extensive military air and naval exercises, the first of their kind in at least five years, the Miami Herald reported Tuesday. The ships are expected to arrive Wednesday and stay for about a week.

As a response, the U.S. Navy deployed three ships, including two destroyers and a submarine reconnaissance aircraft, to track the flotilla after it sailed less than 30 miles off the coast of South Florida, the Herald reported.

“In accordance with standard procedures, we’ve been actively monitoring the Russian ships as they transit the Atlantic Ocean within international waters,” an official with U.S. Northern Command told the Herald. “Air and maritime assets under U.S. Northern Command have conducted operations to ensure the defense of the United States and Canada. Russia’s deployments are part of routine naval activity which pose no direct threat or concern to the United States.”

Cuba said in a release last week the ships did not carry nuclear weapons and did not represent a threat, Florida Today reported. The Foreign Ministry in Havana said the Russian vessels visiting Cuba are the Admiral Gorshkov frigate and support ships including the fleet oil tanker Pashin, the rescue tug Nikolay Chiker, and the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan.

TheIntelFrog, an open-source intelligence channel according to Newsweek, has been posting on X about the flotilla’s movement and the vessels and aircraft following it. At 8:45 a.m. Tuesday, it wrote with an accompanying graphic, “The Russians have passed Miami and are still southbound between the Bahamas and Florida. US Navy P-8A Poseidon #AE682F is overhead [red line). Positions shown of USCGC Stone, USS Truxtun, USS Donald Cook, and Canadian Warship 322.”

The U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon is a submarine reconnaissance aircraft. The USCGC Stone is a Coast Guard Cutter, and the Truxtun and Donald Cook are destroyers. Canadian Warship 332 is the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec. TheIntelFrog also posted that the Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora has been monitoring the flotilla.