MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. A Virginia-class submarine belonging to the US Navy was spotted in Russia’s territorial waters near the Kurils by Il-38 anti-submarine aircraft and one of the Pacific Fleet submarines during a planned exercise on locating a submarine of a hypothetical enemy, a source close to the naval sphere told TASS.

"An American Virginia-class submarine was detected by Il-38 naval aviation aircraft and one of the submarines of the Pacific Fleet during the drills on the search and elimination of a hypothetical enemy’s submarines in the areas of their possible deployment," the source said.

According to the source, the submarine’s coordinates were transmitted to the group of warships led by the Pacific Fleet’s frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov, with the Russian multi-purpose ship undertaking all the necessary actions on the protection of Russia’s state border. The source noted that the US submarine had an objective advantage in the detection of the Russian vessel yet the speedy actions of the Pacific Fleet’s anti-submarine forces apparently caught it off guard and the submarine did not manage to leave the area of the drills unnoticed.

On February 12, 2022 at 10.40 (Moscow Time), a Virginia-class submarine belonging to the US Navy was detected by Russian anti-submarine forces in Russia’s territorial waters near Urup Island of the Kuril range. The submarine did not react to the orders to surface. The Russian side made a decision to use special means while the submarine started a self-propelled simulator to split the target image on radar and acoustic control means into two parts and retreated from Russian territorial waters at a maximum speed. The US military attache in Moscow was handed a note and told that the Russian Defense Ministry reserves the right to undertake all possible measures in Russia’s territorial waters to ensure the security of the Russian Federation.