UK's new Warship is convenient sea target: Russian MoD hits back at Britain

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov on Friday hits back at the British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, saying, UK's new warship HMS Queen Elizabeth is nothing but a "convenient sea target".

This comes after Fallon, while praising the Queen Elizabeth, tried making fun of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and said, Moscow will look with "envy" on Britain's new aircraft carrier.

As per the Sputnik, Konashenkov, in response, described the British aircraft carrier as "just a convenient oversized target at sea."

"In contrast, the Admiral Kuznetsov is armed with air defense and anti-submarine weapons, as well as with anti-ship Granit missiles," he said.

Echoing similar sentiments, Russian military expert Oleg Ponomarenko, urged the British Defense Secretary to focus on warships' combat capabilities, rather than the beauty of their exteriors.

"It is a very serious weapon. The Queen Elizabeth is also equipped with similar systems but its stock of missiles is insignificant. This British ship is only designed for local conflicts," Ponomarenko said.

Usually, the Russian Defence Ministry relies on submarine warfare rather than carrier groups to project naval power.

The Britain new aircraft, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is a 280-meter (919-foot), 65,000-ton aircraft carrier.

The aircraft, which was built in eight years, left the Scottish port of Rosyth in the early hours of Tuesday to conduct sea trials for a week in the North Sea.

Named after Queen Elizabeth I, the UK's warship, which is worth 3.0 billion pounds (3.8 billion dollars), is said to be the largest ship in the history of the British naval forces.

Fears have also been raised that this warship of Britain could be vulnerable to cyberattacks. In spite of that Queen Elizabeth has been set out for sea trials with outdated Microsoft Windows XP operating system.

-ANI