The United Kingdom said its aircraft carrier in the Norwegian Sea was repeatedly approached by a Russian patrol aircraft in early July 2026 before being escorted away by U.K. fighter jets. The incident, which the U.K. called “unsafe and unprofessional,” came ahead of a NATO meeting in Ankara where NATO members pledged billions of dollars in military assistance to Ukraine.
U.K. officials said the Russian maritime patrol aircraft passed at low altitude and “unnecessarily close” to the HMS Prince of Wales, the aircraft carrier at the center of a strike group, on July 2. “The Bear-F … dropped a large number of sonobuoys in close proximity to the carrier,” the U.K. Ministry of Defence said in a statement, referring to devices that are used to detect and track submarines.
Two F-35 fighter jets from the HMS Prince of Wales were sent to intercept the Russian aircraft until it left the area. The U.K.’s carrier strike group currently is deployed under NATO’s command in the High North as part of efforts to boost North Atlantic security. This year, the U.K. deployed military vessels to prevent attacks on cables and pipelines by Russian submarines that spent more than a month in and around U.K. waters.