Cat and Mouse: A U.S. Destroyer Shadowed a Russian Warship in the Caribbean

Task and Purpose. The National Interest•July 6, 2019

The great game continues.

Cat and Mouse: A U.S. Destroyer Shadowed a Russian Warship in the Caribbean

The U.S. military said recently that it is monitoring the Russian ship’s activities.

One of Russia’s most advanced warships is sailing around in the Caribbean, but it’s not alone: the U.S. Navy has dispatched a destroyer to keep a close eye on it.

The Admiral Gorshkov, the first of a new class of Russian frigates built for power projection, arrived in Havana, Cuba on Monday accompanied by the multipurpose logistics vessel Elbrus, the sea tanker Kama, and the rescue tug Nikolai Chiker, the Associated Press reported.

The Russian warship made headlines earlier this year when Russia reported that it was arming the vessel with a new weapon — the electro-optic Filin 5P-42 — that emits an oscillating beam of high-intensity light designed to cause temporary blindness, disorientation, and even nausea.

The U.S. military said Wednesday that it is monitoring the Russian ship’s activities.