A frigate of the Spanish Navy watches over a Russian frigate off the coast of Galicia

The transit of Russian warships near Spanish coasts is back in the news, this time in the vicinity of Galicia.

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This Thursday, the Defense Staff (EMAD) has communicated that the frigate "Almirante Juan de Borbón" F-102, of the "Álvaro de Bazán" class (also known as F-100), has tracked and monitored the Russian ship "Admiral Gorshkov" in its transit off the Galician coast. According to the EMAD, the Spanish frigate, based at the Ferrol Military Arsenal (in northern Galicia), "began tracking the Russian naval unit after locating it at the height of the mouth of the Miño River", in southern Galicia, on the border between Spain and Portugal.

The EMAD has published these photos of the Russian frigate passing by the Galician coast, and has indicated that the frigate "Almirante Juan de Borbón" began this surveillance by relieving a Portuguese Navy ship "and carried out surveillance until it left the maritime spaces of interest in the northwest of the peninsula. After fulfilling its mission, the Spanish frigate transferred responsibility for monitoring to a French Navy ship." These surveillance tasks over maritime spaces of national interest are common in the Spanish Navy and in the naval forces of other allied countries.

The Russian frigate "Admiral Gorshkov" was already located by the Spanish frigate "Navarra" F-85 south of the Balearic Islands on December 16, sailing alongside the resupply ship "Yelnya" through Spanish waters in its transit from the Eastern Mediterranean. Curiously, the "Yelnya" does not appear in the information published today by the EMAD. Above these lines we can see the F-85 monitoring the Russian frigate a few days ago.

This is the photo of the Russian frigate published by EMAD on December 16, as it passes south of the Balearic Islands. This Russian ship is the first of its kind. It was laid down on February 1, 2006 and launched on October 29, 2010, entering service on July 28, 2018.

The frigate Admiral Gorshkov carries one 130-mm A-192 Armat main gun, 16 bays for 3M55 Oniks, Kalibr or 3M22 Zircon anti-ship missiles, 32 bays for anti-submarine missiles, two 30-mm Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-30 rotary cannons and two 330-mm Paket-NK torpedo launchers with a capacity of four torpedoes each. The stern has a helicopter flight deck, and it usually carries a Kamov Ka-27.

Although EMAD does not mention it, the transit of these Russian ships near the Spanish coast is surely due to the Russian withdrawal from Syria, because after the fall of the Assad dictatorship the Russian Navy will no longer be able to continue using the naval base in Tartus, the only naval installation that Russia had in the Mediterranean Sea. According to Newsweek on December 4, the "Admiral Gorshkov" and the "Yelnya" were the last two Russian ships remaining at the Tartus base.

Currently, the frigate "Admiral Gorshkov" has its home port in Zapadnaya Litsa, on the Kola Peninsula, on the shores of the Barents Sea. This Russian frigate was already the subject of a tracking operation by the Spanish Navy in January 2023, when it was sailing across the Atlantic towards the Mediterranean Sea.

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Photos: Estado Mayor de la Defensa. An image of the frigate "Almirante Juan de Borbón" F-102. Other photos: Estado Mayor de la Defensa / Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.