auonsson

After a few days of lurking by Edinburgh, Scotland Russian navy support ship VALENTIN RYKOV has stopped just east of Danish strait's chokepoint Fehmarn Belt. 11h earlier she was in company with frigate Neustrashimy and there is a realistic possibility she still is. Shadowed/inspected by NATO.

During night two NATO warships have driven back and forth east and west of the Fehmarn Belt with Russian navy close by. Fehmarn Belt is significant for being a maritime chokepoint and construction of a tunnel underneath, one of the larger infrastructure projects atm in Europe.

US Navy research (or spy if you will) ship Bruce C. Heezen has been driving around slowly in the spot I refer to as the Russian parking lot since Oct 24. Spot is often used as staging area for Russian missions, it is a small sliver of international waters off the main routes.

Shadow tanker MYRA IMO 9336490 is running with a storm heading for Ireland after issuing a distress call earlier today. At 10 knots she will hit Ireland in ~23h lest she turns, but luckily the storm will subside during tomorrow. Falsely flagged, any navy might inspect her anywhere.

Last months she has switched MMSI (radio serial number) and flags several times. She is unloaded according to latest photos. bsky.app/profile/pa.n...

Oct 22 a German P8 maritime patrol aircraft made a unique (first ever?) mission where they flew along the fairways leading into Baltic Sea. They spent many laps around a Russian arms shipment (Baltic Leader), some around known shadow tankers and some around unknown causes.

bsky.app/profile/joha...

Oct 22 a German P8 maritime patrol aircraft made a unique (first ever?) mission where they flew along the fairways leading into Baltic Sea. They spent many laps around a Russian arms shipment (Baltic Leader), some around known shadow tankers and some around unknown causes.

Today German air force are at it again, using a P8 maritime patrol air craft they are south of Norway engaged in what looks like anti-submarine training. The aircraft type is new for the German Air Force.

Oct 22 a German P8 maritime patrol aircraft made a unique (first ever?) mission where they flew along the fairways leading into Baltic Sea. They spent many laps around a Russian arms shipment (Baltic Leader), some around known shadow tankers and some around unknown causes.

Oct 22 a UK P8 maritime patrol aircraft made a unique (first ever?) mission where they flew along the fairways leading into Baltic Sea. They spent many laps around a Russian arms shipment (Baltic Leader), some around known shadow tankers and some around unknown causes.

Data for animation above from airplanes.live, various AIS-sources, Sentinel1 (EU), lots of official state data on borders, marineregions etc. Sat data is fresh, but not timesynced. Thanks everyone!

Proof of concept: Got me a live-ish map layer based on open NISAR satellite data. It shows (the blobs) where (roughly) strong ~1.2-1.3 GHz emissions come from, ie often jammers or air defense radars. Simplified, but another situational awareness. A sudden new blob? Alerts.

Unfortunately it also makes it impossible to use this wonderful new source of sat data to study anything in important spots such as St Petersburg (pictured), Baltiysk or many other Russian military installations. Nor most of Ukraine.

Proof of concept: Got me a live-ish map layer based on open NISAR satellite data. It shows (the blobs) where (roughly) strong ~1.2-1.3 GHz emissions come from, ie often jammers or air defense radars. Simplified, but another situational awareness. A sudden new blob? Alerts.

Project 03182 replenishment vessel "Valentin Rykov" 4750653 is heading out for a likely first ever mission. Commissioned this summer a guess is that she is heading for English Channel to replenish the Russian warship guarding it, I believe frigate RFS Neustrashimy at moment.

75k ton tanker MYRA flying false flag Cameroon is heading out after a long loading Ust-Luga, Russia. Flying a false flag she is up for grabs. Any navy may stop and ascertain her status anywhere on the worlds oceans. She is just one of many slipping trough.

A sanctioned Russian gunrunner cargo ship made a U-turn into Sweden last hours and has now resumed normal course. Her last trip is with a 20 day AIS-hole in Med (stopped Novosibirsk?) Guess: side-mission to probe NATO attention. Owned by state company MG Flot, Russian-flagged.