The Kashin is a 1960s design. It has had some upgrades, but it will not add matrially to the military balance there...and that balance is decidedly and completey against the Russians.
There are no Kirovs in the Med. The Russian Pacific Fleet is on scheduled exercises and there are no announcements that they are going to the Med. Even if they did, they are a couple of weeks awway and if anything happens, it will be over long before they get there.
And they have to pass by two complete US Carrier groups in the Arabian Sea and Red Sea to get there. There not coming, Jim.
The Russians, if the Kashin indeed goes there, will have the following combatants:
1 x Slava Cruiser
2 x Udaloy Destrroyers
1 x Kashin Destroyer
1 x Neustrashimyy frigate
1 x Krivak Frigate
And maybe...
2 x Nuclear Attack subs
That’s up to eight combatants, two of them (the Kashi and the Krivak) decades out of date.
The US and French have:
1 x Nuclear Carrier (Charles de Gaulle)
1 x Georges Destroyer
1 x FREMM Frigate
1 x Lafayette Frigate
1 x Forbin Destroyers
5 x Burke AEGIS Destoryers
1 x Rubis SSN
2 x LA/Virginia SSNs
1 X Ohio SSGN
14 combatatnts, all of them very up to date.
In addition, the US has a large base in italy with a lot of aircraft, and the french have their Rafesl and Super Eternards on their carrier. And the US has two complete Carrier groups near by in the Arabian Sea and Red Sea...another 14 modern vessels and probably 120-140 mnore aircraft.
Any major engagement will result in a disaster for the Russians at this point, and so they will avoid it if they possibly can.
The problem with all those ships you listed on “our side” are under the command of sissy, girly Hussein. The Russian ships are under the command of macho Putin. Putin has the advantage.
The US has the numerical and technological superiority. But, they do not have the moral authority. If the SHTF, US forces might stand down an order from the POS. Why not, the POS didn’t have the ambassador and his force contingent’s back at Benghazi, now it’s time to return the favor.
The one only Christian in all of this seems to be the one commanding the ships with Russian-sounding names.
Not exactly on the scale of Jutland.
They aren’t any match for the US battlegroup, and Putin knows that. But that isn’t what they are there for.
They are a TRIP LINE, a “Red Line” that Putin is daring Obama to cross.
All they have to do is withstand the initial wave of US attacks on Syria, and the Strategic mission will be completed. IF Obama is dumb enough to launch.
Great Post! Thanks.
There's no doubt about that, but the main question, when we're dealing with a country that possesses a nation-killing nuclear arsenal, is whether they might decide to vaporize, with nukes, our conventional assets based abroad, daring us to retaliate with nukes against their assets on Russian territory and kicking off a general nuclear conflagration. I think the odds are good that we'll retaliate against a Russian nuclear strike against our fleet with a nuclear strike against their fleet, but that's a lousy trade. If we extend it to Russian assets beyond that theater, but outside of Russia, the Russians could retaliate against our bases around the world. And obviously, if we target assets in Russia, there's the possibility of our thousand largest cities and military bases getting burned to the ground.
I think it's a lousy gamble just to grind Russia's face into the dirt. I think we've established pretty clearly who's boss, and it's time to stop treating every Russian attempt to shore up its crumbling client states as the second coming of the annexation of the Sudetenland that was formalized at the Munich Agreement. We won the Cold War, and the end zone dance isn't just boorish, it's dangerous behavior in the face of a former adversary that remains armed with 10K nukes.