Russian warships pass close to British waters over Christmas holiday U.K. navy says
Gorshkov
The navy said that a Russian warship   the Admiral Gorshkov   passed close to British territorial waters Saturday and that the St. Albans frigate was dispatched to escort it as it passed through the North Sea. It released several grainy photographs of the two ships sailing closely to each other in what appeared to be choppy waters.
Because  the Admiral Gorshkov  is still in sea trials   it  probably does not yet pose a military threat  said Michael Kofman  an expert on the Russian military at the Center for Naval Analyses.
 The Gorshkov  is a prime example both of the strength of the Russian naval rearmament and of its shortfalls. NATO leaders have said that Russian naval activity is at levels unseen since the end of the Cold War  the payoff of a modernization and investment program that started shortly after Russiaâs incursion into Georgia in 2008.
But progress has been hampered by shoddy construction and technical difficulties.  The Gorshkov  is the long-awaited flagship of a new class of stealth missile frigate. Originally scheduled to enter service in 2013  shipbuilders said Monday it was still undergoing tests 11 years after construction started.
âUnfortunately  no chances have been left to raise the flag aboard  the Gorshkov  this year â the president of the United Shipbuilding Corp.  Alexei Rakhmanov  told the TASS newswire agency on Monday. He said the shipâs advanced technology was still undergoing evaluations  and that once they were done  it would skip a further testing period and enter military service immediately. The accelerated schedule is a possible sign of pressures following years of delays.
The navy said that a Russian warship    [TGT] passed close to British territorial waters Saturday and that the St. Albans frigate was dispatched to escort it as it passed through the North Sea. It released several grainy photographs of the two ships sailing closely to each other in what appeared to be choppy waters.
Because   [TGT] is still in sea trials    [TGT]   probably does not yet pose a military threat  said Michael Kofman  an expert on the Russian military at the Center for Naval Analyses.
  [TGT] is a prime example both of the strength of the Russian naval rearmament and of its shortfalls. NATO leaders have said that Russian naval activity is at levels unseen since the end of the Cold War  the payoff of a modernization and investment program that started shortly after Russiaâs incursion into Georgia in 2008.
But progress has been hampered by shoddy construction and technical difficulties.   [TGT] is the long-awaited flagship of a new class of stealth missile frigate. Originally scheduled to enter service in 2013  shipbuilders said Monday it was still undergoing tests 11 years after construction started.
âUnfortunately  no chances have been left to raise the flag aboard   [TGT] this year â the president of the United Shipbuilding Corp.  Alexei Rakhmanov  told the TASS newswire agency on Monday. He said the shipâs advanced technology was still undergoing evaluations  and that once they were done  it would skip a further testing period and enter military service immediately. The accelerated schedule is a possible sign of pressures following years of delays.