FRUKUS participants do not confirm the damage of HMS York

04.07.2012 HMS York, pennant number 90, a York-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy, had technical problems during the passage from the FRUKUS exercise area in Baltic Sea, not far away from the main base of Baltic Fleet – Baltiysk port, to Saint Petersburg. The source from the FRUKUS exercise headquarter told Central Navy Portal.

British naval vessel HMS York (D98) crew participated in FRUKUS exercise with sailors from French naval vessel De Grasse (D612), Russian naval vessel Yaroslav Mudry (727) and guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60). The exercise lasted from June 25 till June 29.

Yaroslav Mudry, a Project 11540 guard Frigate, commanding officer, captain II rank Alexei Suglobov told Central Navy Portal reporter, that as an exercise participant he did not know anything about the damage of British naval vessel. - HMS York came to Saint Petersburg on schedule. That means, now the vessel is not damaged, - Alexei Suglobov said. - Yaroslav Mudriy joined York in the Gulf of Finland, near the Saint Petersburg water zone. We together went alongside at English quay in the center of the town on June 30th.

Yaroslav Mudry commanding officer mentioned, that all ships, operating in FRUKUS-2012, are quite old (except Yaroslav Mudry), as they were built in 1970-80s. But the number of years of Russian guard frigate is not more than three years: the St. Andrew's flag was hoisted at Yaroslav Mudry on June 24th, 2009.

The participants are Russian frigate Yaroslav Mudry, British destroyer HMS York, American cruiser USS Normandy, and French destroyer De Grasse.

International naval exercise FRUKUS is the annual activity held in order to practice interaction at sea. Traditionally, it comprises warships of Russian, French, British, and US navies. 

The history of the FRUKUS exercise goes back to 1988. Initially, it was called RUKUS because of participating countries (Russia + UK + US). In 1993 France was invited to attend the exercise. Since that time the exercise named FRUKUS is held in four-side format. 

The exercise is conducted every year since 2003 with the view to improve cooperation between Russian, French, British, and US navies. Each country delegates one warship.