MOSCOW: The Russian military mocked Britain’s new aircraft carrier on Thursday, saying the HMS Queen Elizabeth presented “a large convenient target” and would be wise to keep its distance from Moscow’s warships.
The giant vessel, Britain’s most advanced and biggest warship, embarked on its maiden voyage on Monday, prompting British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon to say he thought the Russians would look at it “with a little bit of envy.”
Stung by that remark and angered by Fallon calling Russia’s sole aircraft carrier “dilapidated,” the Russian defence ministry issued a strongly-worded statement on Thursday, criticising Fallon and deriding the HMS Queen Elizabeth.
“These rapturous statements ... about the supremacy of the new aircraft carrier’s beautiful exterior over the Russian aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov expose Fallon’s utter ignorance of naval military science,” the ministry said.
“Like a bee, the British aircraft carrier is only capable of independently releasing planes from its belly closely flanked by a swarm of warships, support ships and submarines to protect it. That is why... the British aircraft carrier is merely a large convenient naval target.”
The ageing Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s only aircraft carrier, and a ship that Fallon has criticised more than once, was by contrast armed with an array of defensive missiles, the ministry said, warning the HMS Queen Elizabeth to keep her distance from the Russian navy.
“It is in the interests of the British Royal Navy not to show off the ‘beauty’ of its aircraft carrier on the high seas any closer than a few hundred miles from its Russian ‘distant relative’,” the ministry said. — Reuters
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