Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s only carrier, is halfway on its journey to Syria along with her escort ships and the formidable missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy. In mid-October, the flotilla made its way around Britain and headed straight through the English Channel.

The Royal Navy, keenly aware of the geopolitical message implicit in the Russian show of force, sent its own warships to shadow the the fleet.

First, the frigate HMS Richmond sailed from the Shetland Islands and followed the carrier in the North Sea, trading places with the Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan as Admiral Kuznetsov proceeded south into the channel, sticking within international waters.

The British vessels tracked the carrier group “every inch of the way,” U.K. defense secretary Michael Fallon said.

To be sure, the Kremlin’s decision to send Admiral Kuznetsovthat Britain doesn’t have enough proper warships — the escorts and support vessels — to adequately protect both.

The poor state of the Royal Navy has set off alarm bells in Washington and London. “Europe is a maritime continent. It’s a huge peninsula, but unless it gets its act together the continent will become a backwater in a constantly globalising world,” Royal Navy Rear. Adm. Chris Parry said during a July summit in London.

The British government does not want to repeat the mistake of 2014, when a Russian cruiser sailed near Scotland for 24 hours without a British warship in sight. Embarrassingly, the Daring-class destroyer HMS Defender had to scramble from Portsmouth, all the way down on the southern coast.

Hence, the United Kingdom was under political pressure to not