Forecourting controversy — Smoke-filled rooms — Bridge to nowhere politico.eu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from politico.eu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As Britain s flagship aircraft carrier sailed through the waters of the Mediterranean last month, it found itself targeted by a Russian submarine monitoring activity in the region.
HMS Queen Elizabeth, the largest and most powerful warship constructed for the Royal Navy, was leading a Carrier Strike Group (CSG) to the Indo-Pacific.
The Russian predator – believed to be a Kilo-class diesel-powered attack submarine from the Black Sea fleet – was spying on the nine-vessel group as it passed Cyprus.
Military might: HMS Queen Elizabeth and the Carrier Strike Group
But it was not long before predator turned prey as naval chiefs scrambled two Merlin Mk2 submarine-hunting helicopters to drop high-tech sonobuoys into the water to listen for the distinctive sounds emitted by the sub.
Skirmish with Russian sub shows Ultra is critical to Royal Navy thisismoney.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thisismoney.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ministers are under pressure to block the private equity takeover of defence group Ultra Electronics.
Former defence secretary Lord Heseltine has slammed the £2.6billion bid from US bidder Advent International, which is acting through Cobham – another British military supplier which it bought last year in a bitterly contested deal.
Accusing the business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng of abandoning industrial strategy , the Tory grandee called for rigorous checks to be conducted before any deal is approved. Heseltine, a successful businessman who served under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, said: I have said before that we should have a proper scrutiny process for the purpose of industrial strategy.
Private equity swoops on British defence giant: Ministers told to block £2.6bn takeover of Ultra Electronics by Cobham owner Advent
The defence group s board said it was minded to back the offer of 3500p per share from US buyout firm Advent
The approach by Advent came through Cobham, another UK defence firm it bought last year in a bitterly-contested deal
Any deal is likely to trigger an official review due to the highly-sensitive technology Ultra supplies to the armed forces, particularly the Royal Navy
In a bid to ensure the deal goes through, Advent has said it is prepared to make national security undertakings