{"id":46160,"date":"2019-12-18T17:56:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T17:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/12\/18\/russian-spy-ship-lurking-off-us-coast-conducting-unsafe-operation\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:41:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:41:20","slug":"russian-spy-ship-lurking-off-us-coast-conducting-unsafe-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/12\/18\/russian-spy-ship-lurking-off-us-coast-conducting-unsafe-operation\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian spy ship lurking off US coast conducting \u2018unsafe operation\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/08\/10\/navys-top-officer-warns-of-increased-russian-and-chinese-activity-in-the-atlantic-ocean\/\" target=_blank>U.S. Northern Command <\/a>and the Coast Guard have been tracking a Russian spy ship equipped with electronic surveillance gear that has been lurking off the East Coast of the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Monday, the <a href=\"https:\/\/homeport.uscg.mil\/Lists\/Content\/DispForm.aspx?ID=60781&#038;Source=\/Lists\/Content\/DispForm.aspx?ID=60781\" target=_blank>Coast Guard<\/a> sent out a Maritime Safety Information Bulletin warning boaters of reports of the Viktor Leonov operating in an \u201cunsafe manner\u201d off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Tuesday, the <a href=\"https:\/\/homeport.uscg.mil\/Lists\/Content\/DispForm.aspx?ID=60781&#038;Source=\/Lists\/Content\/DispForm.aspx?ID=60781\" target=_blank>Coast Guard<\/a> said the Russian ship was operating in USCG\u2019s Jacksonville, Florida, area of responsibility, which encompasses roughly 40,000 square miles of ocean and nearly 190 miles of coast from Kings Bay, Georgia, to Port Malabar, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis unsafe operation includes not energizing running lights while in reduced visibility conditions, not responding to hails by commercial vessels attempting to coordinate safe passage and other erratic movements,\u201d the Coast Guard posted on its bulletin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cVessels transiting these waters should maintain a sharp lookout and use extreme caution when navigating in proximity to this vessel. Mariners should make reports of any unsafe situations to the United States Coast Guard,\u201d the Coast Guard said in its safety message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adm. James Foggo III, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and U.S. Naval Forces Africa, told reporters Dec. 18 that the Russian spy ship was operating a \u201ccouple hundred\u201d miles off the East Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command told Military Times that they were tracking the Russian ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are aware of Russia\u2019s naval activities, including the deployment of these intelligence collection ships in the region,&#8221; Maj. Mark R. Lazane, a spokesman with NORTHCOM, told Military Times in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;While we won\u2019t discuss specific measures being taken, NORAD and NORTHCOM routinely conduct air and maritime operations to ensure the defense of the United States and Canada,\u201d Lazane said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not the first time the Viktor Leonov has conducted intelligence operations off the East Coast off the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2017, the Pentagon announced the Leonov was being trailed by a Coast Guard vessel but was operating in international waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is not something where we have seen where they have entered territorial waters, and as such it is lawful and very similar to operations we do,\u201d then-<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/02\/17\/a-russian-spy-ship-is-prowling-americas-east-coast-but-the-pentagon-isn-t-too-worried\/\" target=\"_blank\">Pentagon<\/a> spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said about the Leonov in February 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Russian surveillance ship has been spotted conducting operations on the U.S. submarine base in New London, Connecticut, and other Navy bases in Florida and Virginia as far back as 1998, the Pentagon previously said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey routinely deploy intelligence vessels worldwide to monitor the activities and particularly naval activities of other nations, but then again conducted lawfully in international waters and not unlike operations we conduct ourselves,\u201d Davis said in 2017 about the Leonov operating near the East Coast of the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Foggo said that the Coast Guard reported that the Russian ship was not responding to signals or \u201cbridge to bridge\u201d radio communications and was running without lights on at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those actions, Foggo said Wednesday, are risky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNORAD and USNORTHCOM closely track vessels of interest, including foreign military naval vessels such as the Russian ship VICTOR LEONOV, in our area of responsibility,\u201d Lazane said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adm. James Foggo III, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and U.S. Naval Forces Africa, told reporters Wednesday that the Russian spy ship was operating a \u201ccouple hundred\u201d miles off the East Coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":84519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":13,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,13,24,89,16,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3412],"class_list":["post-46160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"YLX3SVR77JC33KLKZJYN6A43II","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2019\/12\/18\/russian-spy-ship-lurking-off-us-coast-conducting-unsafe-operation\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Russian spy ship lurking off US coast conducting \u2018unsafe operation\u2019 - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Adm. 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James Foggo III, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and U.S. Naval Forces Africa, told reporters Wednesday that the Russian spy ship was operating a \u201ccouple hundred\u201d miles off the East Coast.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/12\/18\/russian-spy-ship-lurking-off-us-coast-conducting-unsafe-operation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Air Force TImes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-18T17:56:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T03:41:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shawn Snow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shawn Snow\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/airforcetimes\\\/flashpoints\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/18\\\/russian-spy-ship-lurking-off-us-coast-conducting-unsafe-operation\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/airforcetimes\\\/flashpoints\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/18\\\/russian-spy-ship-lurking-off-us-coast-conducting-unsafe-operation\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/airforcetimes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"Russian spy ship lurking off US coast conducting \u2018unsafe operation\u2019\",\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2019-12-18T17:56:47+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-08T03:41:20+00:00\",\n\t            \"mainEntityOfPage\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/airforcetimes\\\/flashpoints\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/18\\\/russian-spy-ship-lurking-off-us-coast-conducting-unsafe-operation\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"wordCount\": 537,\n\t            \"commentCount\": 0,\n\t            \"publisher\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/airforcetimes\\\/#organization\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/airforcetimes\\\/flashpoints\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/18\\\/russian-spy-ship-lurking-off-us-coast-conducting-unsafe-operation\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Leonov.jpg.jpg\",\n\t            \"articleSection\": [\n\t                \"Daily News Roundup\",\n\t                \"Flashpoints\",\n\t                \"Home\",\n\t                \"Middle Column\",\n\t                \"News\",\n\t                \"Newsletters\",\n\t                \"Pentagon &amp; 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