UK Edition
Royal Navy fires warning shots as Spanish vessel harasses US sub in Gibraltar
The Royal Navy fired flares to warn off a Spanish patrol boat approaching an American nuclear submarine off Gibraltar.
The fast patrol boat HMS Sabre fired warning shots across the bow of a Guardia Civil vessel as it twice tried to cut across the path of USS Florida during an incursion into Gibraltar’s waters.
Gibraltar says Spanish vessels regularly stray deep into its territorial waters and the Foreign Office has attacked the incursions as provocative.
But defence sources said it was rare for a Royal Navy vessel to fire flares and it had only happened a couple of times in the past two years.
One Naval source said: "It just got too close and when it's a nuclear submarine, you get twitchy anyway. If you have responsibility for the protection of it, then you are going to take action much quicker than you might normally. The force protection measures worked and the vessel went away."
Officials in the British overseas territory have complained about the incident as USS Florida visited the British Naval base last month, the Sun reported.
Spain claims sovereignty over the strategic outpost, which stands on the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula, but has been a British Overseas Territory since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
In recent years Madrid has warned it is ready to impose a new border tax, close its airspace to planes using the British overseas territory's airport, and investigate the affairs of Gibraltarians with Spanish economic interests.
The row escalated in 2013 after Gibraltar began building an artificial reef it said would improve fish stocks depleted by incursions by Spanish fishermen.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence declined to comment on nuclear submarine operations or force protection measures.