Russia and America have been locking horns. But this is getting scary.
Because the Pentagon locked down after a Russian ship was spotted off the US coast.
Vishnya-Class: Soviet-Era Spies of the Sea
The Kareliya belongs to Russia’s Vishnya-class (also known as Meridian-class or Project 864), a fleet of intelligence-gathering vessels originally built for the Soviet Navy in the 1980s.
These ships, seven of which remain in active service with the Russian Navy, are specialized for signals intelligence (SIGINT) and communications intelligence (COMINT), equipped with an array of advanced sensors to intercept radar emissions, military communications, and telemetry data from missiles or aircraft.
At 309 feet long with a displacement of around 3,100 tons, they feature two prominent radomes for satellite data transmission and defensive armaments like AK-630 close-in weapon systems and SA-N-8 surface-to-air missiles. The Kareliya herself, commissioned in 1986 and modernized during a 2017 refit, hails from Russia’s Pacific Fleet based in Vladivostok, often deploying far from home to eavesdrop on high-value targets like U.S. naval exercises or missile tests.
These vessels have a storied history of Cold War-era shadowing, from monitoring NATO fleets in the Atlantic to more recent patrols near U.S. allies like Japan in 2024, where the Kareliya hugged coastlines to scoop up electronic signals.
Not the First Hawaiian Shadow
This isn’t the Kareliya’s debut off Hawaii; the ship has made repeated visits to the islands’ vicinity, turning the tropical waters into a recurring hotspot for Russian reconnaissance.
It was previously detected loitering nearby in 2021 and 2022, typically lingering just beyond the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit to avoid direct confrontation while positioning for optimal intercepts—possibly targeting U.S. Pacific Fleet operations or tests at sites like the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai.
A 2023 sighting further underscored the pattern, with the vessel—often accompanied by support tankers like the Pechenga—cruising off Kauai to potentially gather intel on America’s ballistic missile defense systems.
These incursions reflect Russia’s long-standing interest in the region, where Hawaii serves as a strategic hub for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, overseeing vast areas amid rising tensions with Beijing.
Broader Pacific Power Plays
The Kareliya’s October 29 appearance fits into Russia’s aggressive naval posturing across the Pacific in 2024, a year marked by the massive “Ocean-2024” exercises—the largest since the Soviet era—involving over 400 warships, submarines, 120 aircraft, and 90,000 personnel spanning the Pacific, Arctic, Mediterranean, Caspian, and Baltic seas.
Teaming up with China for joint drills like “Joint Sea-2024” in the Sea of Japan and northeast Pacific, Moscow flexed anti-submarine tactics and maritime defense maneuvers, explicitly framed by President Putin as a counter to perceived U.S. “containment” in Asia.
Such activities, including Russian aircraft probing Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone during the exercises, signal deepening Russo-Chinese alignment against Western dominance, with spy ships like the Kareliya providing the eyes and ears for these operations.
Amid the ongoing Ukraine conflict straining Russian resources, these Pacific probes underscore Moscow’s pivot eastward, blending intelligence collection with shows of force to challenge U.S. naval supremacy.
