A Royal Navy rigid-hulled inflatable boat this morning chased off a Spanish Guardia Civil boat in UK waters off Gibraltar.
It did so after a Spanish patrol boat, Rio Belelle, cut across the transport vessel USNS Carson City as it entered Gibraltar.
Michael Sanchez, founder of Gibraltar Coast Watchers, said the incident had been a ‘very irresponsible and reckless move by the Spanish vessel’.
He said: ‘Nothing better to ruffle Spain’s feathers than a visit of a US Navy ship to Gibraltar.’
A Spanish Guardia Civil boat cut across USNS Carson City as it entered Gibraltar this morning
Gibraltar Coast Watchers founder Michael J Sanchez took this picture of USNS Carson City this morning
MailOnline have contacted the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Government of Gibraltar for a comment.
USNS Carson City is the seventh Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport, currently in service with the Military Sealift Command. It was launched in June last year.
It was making its way to the Naval Base at Gibraltar at 8am this morning when the Spanish Guardia Civil launch travelling south to north cut across her path.
This required one of the Royal Navy’s speedboats engaged in force protection duties to abandon the escort and chase out the Spanish vessel from Gibraltar waters.
Naval sources said the Spanish incursion appeared to have been a deliberate provocation.
One source said: ‘The expectation is that the smaller boat would keep out of the bigger ships way in the approaches.
‘There are rules about who gives way to what and it looks like this was done to provoke a reaction.’
There have been a number of other such incidents this year, amid rising tensions over the sovereignty of the Rock following the Brexit vote.
Last week the Royal Navy was in a ‘standoff’ with a Spanish police boat and a trawler in Gibraltar.
This map shows how a Royal Navy boat had to chase out a Spanish vessel that blocked the route of the USNS Carson City this morning
The Spanish trawler was fishing illegally in UK waters for third day in a row which led to several British vessels chasing off both Spanish boats after a warning.
In April this year, British vessels were forced to chase off Spanish navy ships on three separate occasions.
On April 29, the The P78 Cazadora, from the Spanish navy’s Descubierta Class, deliberately entered the northern side of the Bay of Gibraltar.
Earlier that same month, on April 4 and April 1, the Royal Navy HMS Scimitar intercepted Spanish navy shop Infanta Cristina off the Gibraltar coast.
The rocky enclave at the tip of the Iberian peninsula has been a British territory – and cause of friction between the U.K. and Spain – since 1713
Last month Spain’s foreign minister said his country would not block a post-Brexit agreement between the UK and European Union to push its sovereignty claim on Gibraltar.
Alfonso Dastis said Spain would not ‘jeopardise’ any future deal by making demands to alter the British overseas territory’s status.
It comes after fears that Brussels negotiating guidelines may give Spain a veto over the Rock’s inclusion in any UK-EU trade deal.
Prime Minister Theresa May reacted to those suggestions by insisting Gibraltar’s status was not up for discussion during withdrawal negotiations.
Gibraltar was captured by Britain in 1704 and ceded to Britain in 1713 under the treaty.
In a 2002 referendum, Gibraltarians rejected by 98 percent a proposal for joint British-Spanish sovereignty.
Gibraltar’s government claims Spanish warships regularly trespass in its waters.