File Photo of the Moskva, Underway.
Posted on 08/13/2008 10:05:16 PM PDT by tcrlaf
One of the members of the crew of a ship in the Black Sea Fleet, upon his return to Sevastopol is interviewed by a reporter regarding the battle with Georgian cutters off of Abkhazia on 10 August.
This is currently leading the news in the Ukraine. The story suggests he is being interviewed by a kpunews reporter.
"We took up station guarding the opposed landing on the Abkhaz shore when all of a sudden four high speed targets were detected. We sent out an IFF signal and the targets didn't react. Receiving a command from the flagship, we got into formation and right at that moment the unidentified targets opened fire on the ship formation and flagship. The cruiser was damaged and a small fire broke out aboard. Then, fearing for seaworthyness, the flagship withdrew from the firing area." - the sailor said.
"Right then the small missile boats clearly fired," the participant continued. "Taking up position, our MRK launched a "Malakhit" (SS-N-9) anti-surface missile, which literally cut the lead ship, the "Tbilisi" to ribbons.
After that, fire was shifted to the rest of the Georgian ships. Another ship was damaged, we couldn't finish it off, allowing it to leave the scene under its own power.
So the Moskva was apparently damaged in the attack and disengaged. She is certainly capable of destroying big ships, but the battle appears to highlight a weakness against small ships. The battle also tends to add credibility to what many have said, it is best to fight small ships at sea with small ships at sea.
The sailor goes on to say it took a minute and a half for the Georgian ship to sink in 300 meters of water.
(Excerpt) Read more at translate.google.com ...
This confirms Ukrainian reports from yesterday that the Moskva was "Laid Up" after returning from Georgia.
From the translation (by Google) it sonds like they were doing an OPPOSED Naval LAnding, and were surprised by the Georgian attack.
This could also explain why President Bush was clear that he was sending NAVAL FORCES for "Humanitarian" work, to rub salt in a wound.
All the Info I can find points to the Russian Squadron involved in this being the majority of the SERVICABLE ships at Sevastopol.
Admitting the Moskva took damage and had to leave the area is a HUGE loss of face for the Russians, in my opinion...
Ping.
File Photo of the Moskva, Underway.
Whatever their land capabilities, the Russian Navy is not the threat it once was.
Sounds like we need to give Georgia some of our mothballed ships, tanks, APCs and aircraft, as well as trainers for all the above.
The Russians have been attempting to get some of thier major warships servicable again.
But the massive corruption in the Russian System means that the vast majority of the Navy is unsafe to put to sea, let alone much else.
Photo of Georgian Missle Boat TBLISI, From Wiki... May her crew rest in peace.
I read on another thread that the Ukraine announced that they would not be allowing Russian ships to return if they were involved in aggression against Georgia.
I wonder if this was before that statement.
In the confined waters of the Black Sea, We be better served to give the some old-fashioned PT-Boats, updated with a couple of ship killers....
bttt
Good thing for Ivan that the the Georgian ships weren’t firing MK48’s...there wouldn’t have been anything left of the “Moskva” to be laid up. Plus they could’ve been fired far enough away that there would have been no return fire. Too bad they don’t have a real quiet diesel/electric boat....or we don’t have a 688 in theatre....Yeah i know ROE on Ivans ships and all.
That 4 old Missle gunboats went up against a Soviet... Opps! RUSSIAN Squadron, damaged a cruiser bad enough to send her home, and only lost one boat with another damaged, should literally just scare the hell out of anyone in the Russian Navy with sense enough to realize it.
If that can happen going up against THE GEORGIANS, can you imagine what they would think of going up against a modern missle frigate?
BTTT
It’s an ancient distinction, going back to Troy in the bronze age. The soldier fighting to defend his home is braver than the soldier fighting away from home.
Never saw a Soviet ship that wasn’t a piece of junk. BTT.
The Georgians also have some Combattante II class ships that carry four Exocets each. Not sure how many of them are seaworthy.
To all: Remember. The Iranian Navy is mainly hundreds of small missile boats. No US ship can remain unhit if dozens of small boats unload at it simultaneously.
This is something that we need to know more about, i.e. what did the Georgians use and how many missiles were fired.
This action could change American naval tactics, as one poster above suggested (i.e. the old PT’s with missiles)
I agree.
Arggh! I'm a female who's not familiar with any of this stuff!
Combattante II Photo-The 3(4??) the Georgians Have/Had were formerly Greek Navy. Todays photos from POTI shows 2 of them sitting on the bottom of the harbour, with one having only the top of the aerial tower above water.
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