As a fleet of Russian warships passed close to the coast of South Florida on Tuesday on its way to Havana, some Floridians kept a close eye on its trail and took advantage of services that allow tracking of ships around the world.
Maps from Marinetraffick and Fleetmon, among others, began circulating on social media shortly after the Russian ships were spotted traveling about 30 miles off Key Largo. The ships, including one missile frigate and two support ships, could be tracked in near real time thanks to signals from their transponders, which these companies track as part of their services. The transponders are part of a global security network, the Automatic Identification System
Because they are military ships, Russian ships could have turned off their transponders if they wanted to flee undetected, but one expert said they were likely stopped to alert commercial ships and civilian ships in the area of their presence as an extra security measure to avoid to avoid the risk of accidental collisions.
The fleet’s position so close to the southern U.S. coast on Tuesday was fascinating to many on social media, although the information circulating was at times exaggerated or inaccurate.
“The Russian dis/mis info channels have gone crazy with the ‘Russians are in Cuba’ nonsense. Absolute nonsense,” said X-user@NatalkaKyiv in one of the many discussions that were still ongoing on Wednesday. “Yes. They are presenting this as if the second Cuban Missile Crisis is on the horizon.”
Luis Dominguez, a Cuban exile living in Miami who monitored the Russian ships and a submarine as they headed to Havana, said some people nervously followed the ships under the misconception that the nuclear-powered Kazan submarine was carrying nuclear weapons . .
The threat the ships represent to the U.S. has been exaggerated, said Dominguez, who has a website dedicated to tracking the movements of Cuban officials and sometimes blogs about their air travels. “Each of the U.S. destroyers assigned by the Navy to track the frigate is much more powerful, and because it is a nuclear submarine, that just means it uses nuclear power to move,” he said.
Just as the cards were circulating on Tuesday and Wednesday, social media was flooded with videos of the Kazan showing up in Havana port.
Regardless of where the Russian ships go next, it is highly likely that their voyages will continue to be monitored via ship tracking services.
“We’ll keep watching,” Dominguez said.
