Who watches the watchers? - German intelligence gathering vessel visits Cork

When you think of a navy, what kind of ships do you think of? I presume you’ll picture destroyers and frigates, submarines, or aircraft carriers, or even amphibious landing ships, launching landing crafts and helicopters full of marines, and that is certainly true. However, almost every navy also has a host of other ships, ships that operate outside the glare of the public eye, but that often perform equally invaluable duties. Mine hunters, survey ships, fleet tankers, or training ships fall into this category. There is one other category of ship out there, though. These ships and their crews actually shun the glare of the public eye, preferring to operate in the shadows. Only a limited number of navies operate them. Dedicated reconnaissance vessels, more commonly known as spy ships. 

Everyone who has read Cold War era techno thrillers by the likes of Tom Clancy, or watched movies such as The Final Countdown or The Hunt for Red October (highly recommended, by the way) has heard about the ubiquitous Russian “Trawlers” that always seemed to find particularly rich fishing grounds in close proximity to NATO naval task groups or fleet bases.These ships were tasked with eavesdropping on the communication between the different ships and aircraft of a task group, between the task groups and their land based HQs, always looking out for new encryption codes used by the enemy, and clues that could help the intelligence services back home crack those codes. They also registered other transmissions, radar signals, and tried to glean information from the frequency, pulse repetition frequencies, or doppler shift of these signals, knowing full well that even the slightest difference of any one of these parameters could mean the difference between a radar operating in search mode, tracking a target, or being locked onto a target and providing fire control data to any number of weapons systems. Even jamming attempts were recorded and analysed, looking for frequencies or bands that were clear for their own fire control systems. Needless to say, NATO did likewise, with a number of member states having specialised ships for that job. Germany was one of them.

Well, the Cold War of yesteryear might be over, but these eavesdropping activities never really stopped. In fact, with radar systems becoming more and more complex, it is becoming more and more of a priority for all major players on the world stage. Whether Germany is a major player is not for me to decide, however, while other parts of the Bundeswehr have been bled dry by respective governments since the 1990s, the three intelligence gathering vessels of the Oste class are still going strong, having recently operated off the coast of Syria, if German media reports are to be believed. And now, one of these ships has turned up right smack in the middle of Cork, at North Customs House Quay.

I first noticed that something was up on Friday morning, while running to catch the company shuttle bus to work. behind the bus stop I saw an unusual mast and what I thought was a weirdly rounded smokestack/funnel. I couldn’t see much more, though, as the ship was bow or stern on to me, and the sun was rising behind me. A quick check of the marinetraffic.com app on my iPhone revealed just what had turned up. This was quite something, certainly up there with HNLMS Bruinvis, the Dutch submarine that had visited Cork back in 2016. With such a juicy ship in town over the weekend, I just KNEW I had to grab my camera to head down to the docks. I mean, how often do you get to spy on a spy ship?

The ship has almost as many shades of grey as the sky. I just hope it doesn't amount to 50.

FGS Oker, the second ship of the Oste class, was commissioned in November 1988, replacing a converted trawler of the same name, that had performed a similar role since the 1960s. She and her sister ships FGS Oste and FGS Alster, all named after rivers in Northern Germany, are euphemistically referred to as Fleet Service Vessels (Flottendienstboote) by the German Navy, however, their main role is to gather Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) and SIGnals INTelligence. Given the clandestine nature of their role, these ships are not designed to operate in a front line role, and are therefore unarmed. While not the smallest ships out there, their length of 83.5 meters, and displacement of 3200 tons doesn’t exactly make them dreadnoughts either. They operate with a base crew of 36 officers and ratings, which is supplemented by up to 40 soldiers from the other services of the Bundeswehr, as well as intelligence operatives, most likely belonging to Germany’s military intelligence service MAD (Militärischer Abschirmdienst), or the ostensibly civilian Federal Intelligence Service BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst). In addition to their cloak-and-dagger duties, these ships also act as communications relay ships for task groups of the German Navy, an equally crucial role. There are indications that FGS Oker was involved in ELINT/SIGINT gathering off the coast of Syria back in 2012, although the German Department of Defense is predictably tight-lipped about that.

I am absolutely clueless about the reason for her visit to Cork, but if the stares from some of the officers and ratings on deck are anything to go by, they are clearly not comfortable with drawing attention, much less with some nutcase walking around with a bridge camera. Well sorry, guys, but if you turn up right in the city center of a city like Cork, you’re bound to draw attention. If you want peace and solitude, you should have requested a berth in Tivoli or Ringaskiddy. But even without the crew, the look of the ship certainly betrays her role. What I had originally taken to be a funnel is actually a large elongated “hump” aft of the bridge, topped by a weird cupola. Her tripod mainmast is bristling with all kinds of antennas, while satcom domes are dotted all over the ship.

You can definitely see from her look that she isn't your ordinary naval vessel. 

There's probably some pretty advanced equipment under that "hump" forward of the main mast. Either that, or the ship has a spectacularly bad case of acne.

The amount of antennas mounted on that mast is pretty damn impressive if you ask me.

As I mentioned above, I have no idea what brings FGS Oker to Cork. Given the state of the Irish Defence Forces, especially the Navy, I can’t imagine that there is much intelligence to be gathered here. On the other hand, Cork is one of the most important places in Ireland from a military perspective. Collins Barracks houses the HQ of the Irish Army’s 1st Brigade, and as such is the nerve center for all IDF activities in the southern half of the country. 1st Brigade’s Communications and Information Services company is based out of Collins Barracks, and all of Ireland’s military satellite communications are routed through an uplink station near Midleton, not far from Cork. Then of course, there’s Haulbowline Island, the headquarters and only base of the Irish Navy. While I don’t believe that Ireland as such is a target for any concerted intelligence gathering activity, I do find it intriguing that, while German frigates and corvettes pretty regularly visit Dublin, the first German navy vessel to visit Cork in quite some times is, in effect, a spy ship. It is certainly the most interesting visitor this city has seen in quite some time.