Looks like the darling of the Russian Navy, the Vishnya-class intelligence collection ship Viktor Leonov (SSV-175) is poking around the waters off Kings Bay, Georgia and the Northern Florida Coast doing its part to keep tabs via SIGINT and COMINT as well as her extensive sonar suite on the goings on of the U.S. Navy’s boomers opertaing in the Atlantic.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, Lenonov, a 3500-ton frigate sized AGI originally built in Poland back when the Warsaw Pact was seen and being seen to be doing her thing.
“It’s been all in international waters and all perfectly legal,” said a defense official familiar with efforts to monitor the ship. “But it’s interesting that it is operating, collecting on us where it is.”
This week, the Leonov was spotted anchored about 22 miles off the Florida coast, southeast of Kings Bay.
It reportedly left Cuba on Jan. 22, and its movements since then have not been made public.
