Russian ship Viktor Leonov

Viktor Leonov is a Russian SIGINT ship of the .

Design

The ship specialises in SIGINT and COMINT.

Construction

The ship was commissioned on 5 October 1988 and was constructed in Poland.

Career

In December 2019 the ship was sailing off the coast of South Carolina and Florida under conditions described as "unsafe" as the vessel was not using running lights in low visibility weather and did not respond to commercial vessels' attempts to communicate to avoid potential accidents. The ship has patrolled in international waters off the eastern coast of the United States since 2015. It also often operates in the Caribbean, near Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago.
In April 2025 it was monitored by Irish Defence Forces, with monitoring the ship.