Here’s a great image that looks like it was almost taken from a Cold War-themed video game. It shows the soon-to-be retired British Type 42 destroyer HMS Liverpool shadowing Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, as the slavic ship transits through the English channel during a recent patrol that marked the closest a Russian naval task force had sailed to the British Isles since the fall of the Soviet Union. No matter how much we lament about the current state of the Royal Navy, these pics, showing the rundown-looking Kuznetsov (I admit, this could just be because of the shade of paint and massive amount of black smoke pouring from her stack) near the aging yet put together-looking Liverpool, seem to be a superficial reminder of how far the Russian navy has to go in rebuilding its force.

Keep in mind that China’s new aircraft carrier is Kuznetsov’s sister ship, the ex-Soviet Varyag, so we may see these images repeated soon in the Pacific with U.S. Navy destroyers escorting the newly refurbished Chinese carrier.

Good thing that Britain found a way to once again get a major warship patrolling its home waters, otherwise we wouldn’t have these great photos.