A Russian spy ship was spotted about 100 miles from North Carolina’s coast, apparently embarked on a regular mission of scouting American naval facilities.
The sighting comes days after the high-tech vessel, the Viktor Leonov, was seen leaving the Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago on Monday, having spent at least five days at the island, CNN reported.
"We're monitoring [the ship],” said one U.S. official familiar with reports of the intelligence gathering ship, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
“It's an annual thing… We've seen it off Cape Canaveral, [Fla.], Kings Bay, [Ga.], Norfolk, [Va.], and New London, [Conn.].”
It was unclear where the vessel was heading but its eastern seaboard trek passed locations that were all home to U.S. naval installations.
A second official told CNN that the ship would likely be conducting intelligence operations during a four- to six-month deployment off the East Coast.
That information is based upon previous travel patterns, KIFI-TV noted.
Early last year the ship sailed along the U.S. East Coast, where it lingered in international waters near U.S. naval installations.
The U.S. Southern Command confirmed to Newsweek that the Viktor Leonov had been spotted off North Carolina’s coast.
“We have a general awareness that it's in the area,” the statement said.
“We work closely with our interagency partners to be aware of maritime contacts of interest, while recognizing the right of sovereign nations to freely navigate in international waters and visit countries they have agreements with.”
In a separate statement, a spokesman for the Pentagon told Newsweek, “The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Fleet Forces track all vessels, foreign and domestic, and we're well aware of what is in the area.”