article_snippet: Russia has deployed a fleet of spy trawlers off the British coast to intercept military communications, one of Britain’s most senior retired commanders said yesterday.
article_snippet: The spook ships sent by Moscow can intercept ‘voice transmissions’ up to 200 miles, with RAF Lossiemouth and Coningsby understood to be two of The spook ships sent by Moscow targets as Russian Bear bombers fly close to UK airspace.
article_snippet: The ships, known within Nato as AGIs, or Auxiliary Intelligence Gathering ships, eavesdrop on UK air bases and alert Soviet aircrews by secure communications so The ships, known within Nato as AGIs, or Auxiliary Intelligence Gathering ships know when the Typhoon crews from the Air Reaction Alert force are taking off.
article_snippet: A senior military source said: ‘A senior military source would appear from our intelligence that they are working in support of Soviet bombers which have been seen off the east coast and as far south as Cornwall and simply record our reaction to these events.
article_snippet: The spook ships sent by Moscow Moscow can intercept ‘voice transmissions’ up to 200 miles, with RAF Lossiemouth (pictured) and Coningsby understood to be two of The spook ships sent by Moscow targets .
article_snippet: The Russians tried to monitor amphibious war games in the past and will sit in international waters monitoring communications traffic.
article_snippet: In the past three weeks, Nato P3 Orion spy planes from the United States and Norway have reported six AGIs, adding to concerns that the Soviet activity is part of a planned maritime and air operation against the UK.
article_snippet: The source said: ‘While they look like fishing vessels they are packed with ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) and make no secret of they presence, all they want is to sit and test our reaction times and collate communications.
article_snippet: The problem is that while our managed to deal with they in the 1980s by jamming they electronic ‘listening’ field, they had updated they systems with much greater capability and as long as they sit in international waters we can do nothing.
article_snippet: There are lots of things the Russians want to know and the Russians do go to try and find it out.
article_snippet: Britain’s decision to scrap the Nimrod maritime spy plane has left the RAF with little capability to monitor Soviet maritime movements and has instead relied on Nato allies to help.
article_snippet: Britain’s decision to scrap the Nimrod maritime spy plane added:
highlights_snippet: Russia deployed trawlers off the British coast to intercept communications .
  