Russian aircraft carrier to carry out exercises in Med Sea

Hurriyet Daily News ^

[jhpigott]

Russia is sending its northern fleet led by the country's only aircraft carrier, the "Admiral Kuznetsov," to the Mediterranean Sea for exercises, daily Hürriyet reported on its website Thursday.

[jhpigott]

There are also Russian and Greek media sources reporting this. No coincidence IMO that this is all happening while tensions are ramping up in the E. Med

[jhpigott]

ping

[org.whodat]

NATO authorization, if there was such a thing, to kill people in Libya to protect them from daffy, expired the 27th, maybe Russia is going to start a no fly zone.

[GonzoGOP]

I called that the other day. I said if the Turks kept threatening the Russian oil platforms off Cyprus the Russian's would send the Kuznetsov and Pyotr Velikiy into the Med. They may be able to smash the Russian Black Sea squadron (calling it a fleet is a joke). But the Turks don't have anything that can drive out carrier battle group. Even if the Russian ones pack a lot less hitting power than a US CVBG.

[GonzoGOP]

They say it is operating with an antisubmarine ship, but a quick look-up shows that the Admiral Chabanenko is a Udaloy II class DD. That is like saying an Alrigh Burke class is an antisubmarine ship because it can shoot ASROCs. She is probably the best DD the Russians have. And her 8 big SS-N-22 missiles have serious ship killing potential. Especially against the frigates the Turks operate.

[The Free Engineer]

[jhpigott]

I think the Russian message to Erdogan is pretty clear - cut the crap.

Erdogan has bitten off more than he can chew. He is messing with Greek, Cypriot, Israeli, American and Russian interests in the area.

Too bad Erdogan has cleaned house in his military. Not too long ago this would have ended in a military coup.

[RitchieAprile]

by treaty aircraft carriers aren’t supposed to pass the Dardanelles/Bosporus so they call these units “large antisubmarine ships”.

[fella]

Hmmm . . . . Iranian ship killers off our East coast and the Russkies in the Med. With the muzzies gearing up all around Israel, the next month or 2 could be very interesting.

[GonzoGOP]

by treaty aircraft carriers aren’t supposed to pass the Dardanelles/Bosporus so they call these units “large antisubmarine ships”.

Doesn't apply in this case. Both ships in question are Norther Fleet units. So they are going to be entering the Mediterranean via Gibraltar. What the Russians have in the Black Sea is a joke. Four old frigates and a like number of subs. I think Turkey saw that and figured they could take them. What they forgot is that with NATO no longer a big fan of Turkey, the Russians can move ships through Gibraltar at will.

The Russian navy is small. But the one advantage of their massive downsizing was that the ships they kept for their Northern and Pacific fleets tended to be good ones. They already have at least two nuke subs and a DD of Cyprus. Adding a CV and another top tier DD gives them a respectable presence in the area. And I have to assume that there will be other escorts for the CV.

[NavyCanDo]

What’s with all the hull rust? My carrier the Saratoga which was over 20 years old when I was on it, looked more seaworthy.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Just a little flexing of might—that’s all. Its a message to the Turks—you aint the Ottomans and all your talk is nothing unless you can back it up.

[Vinnie]

Iranian ship killers off our East coast and the Russkies in the Med. With the muzzies gearing up all around Israel, the next month or 2 could be very interesting.

Zer0 has two choices in light of these developments.

Increase his golf games.

Travel

[rmlew]

The Slava class cruise Moskva and the Kara class Kerch are not frigates. There is also an upgraded Kashin class destroyer. The also havea a slew of missile boats and anti-sub ships.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_Fleet
Russia upgrading the Black Sea fleet with new frigates, but these will not be ready for 3 to 5 years. I believe that destroyers, frigates, corvettes and missile boats can be transferred quickly from the Baltic and Northern Fleets.

[GonzoGOP]

Frigates that will be delivered in three to five years, don't count now. According to Janes, Moscova is only semi-active and spends a lot of time in and out of the dockyard. She did do an Indian Ocean cruise last year so she may be in better shape than Janes implies.

The Kara class ships are all laid up. Kerch scheduled for disposal this year and Ochakov damaged by a fire and never fully repaired. Neither are combat capable at this time. That gets you down to the Smetlivy a 42 year old Kashin class DDG, She is the only one of her class not yet sent to the breakers.

Finally there are the two Krivak class frigates. They are a fair match for the Perry class ships the Turks have. They also appear to get away from the dock more than the others so their crews are probably better.

So my initial statement of for frigates was wrong. The Russians might have a cruiser if they can get Moscova to sea. There is one superannuated destroyer and two good frigates.

But the main point is that the Turks with 16 modern frigates and one older frigate could safely feel that they could take them on and win. Especially as off Cyprus the Turkish ships would have air cover while the Russian Black Sea fleet would not. It is the appearance of a CV and modern AA capable ships in the area that changes the dynamic completely.

[Patton@Bastogne]

“thanks” for your analysis !

[SunkenCiv]

This is all about Turkey’s posturing over Cyprus. Thanks jhpigott.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Part of the Russian camouflage design I think. ;)

[cunning_fish]

C’mon, Russia has hundreds of strike aircraft based munutes away from Turkey.
It won’t be much different from Russian-Georgian war.
On the other hand Kuznetsov is a sitting duck there. I don’t think it has an ASW capabilities of US carrier groups.

[Thunder90]

Erdogan has even pissed off the Chinese.