Posted on 04/14/2022 6:02:09 AM PDT by Red Badger
RTS Moskva (121). Russian MoD Photo via TASS
The Russian Navy’s Black Sea flagship has suffered major damage and the crew has abandoned the ship, state media said late Tuesday in reports following Ukrainian claims of hitting the ship with a missile strike.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the mishap on RTS Moskva (121), a ship in the country’s Black Sea Fleet, according to state-run outlet TASS.
The crew of the Moskva the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet was severely damaged and the crew abandoned ship, the Russian Defense Ministry told TASS.
A fire broke out on the ship, causing ammunition to detonate, according to TASS. State media did not elaborate on the cause of the fire.
Ukrainian officials claimed that shore-based anti-ship guided missiles hit Moskva which had been operating from the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea.
“It has been confirmed that the missile cruiser Moskva today went exactly where it was sent by our border guards on Snake Island!” Odesa governor Maksym Marchenko said in a Telegram message on Tuesday. “Neptune missiles guarding the Black Sea caused very serious damage to the Russian ship.”
Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles. Ukraine MoD Photo
Neptunes, first fielded in 2021, are based on the Soviet AS-20 ‘Kayak’anti-ship missile which is similar to the U.S.-built Harpoon missile.
Moskva was commissioned into the Soviet Navy in 1982 and is one of three Slava-class guided-missile cruisers.
The three 11,500-ton Slavas were designed around launchers that can hold 16 SS-N-12 Sandbox anti-ship cruise missiles – each about the size of a telephone pole. Developed in the 1970s, the Slavas and the Sandboxes were designed to take on U.S. and NATO aircraft carriers by overwhelming them with a barrage of high-speed cruise missiles to sink ships.
The two other Slavas are RTS Marshal Ustinov (055) and RFS Varyag (011) have been operating in the Mediterranian.
Moskva is not the first Russian warship to be damaged in the nearly 50-day invasion of Ukraine. A landing ship sank off the port of Ukrainian city Berdiansk after being attacked by Ukrainian forces, USNI News previously reported.
The ship’s fire ultimately damaged a merchant ship at port in Berdiansk, causing damage.
Maybe plausible, maybe not. The targeting, the tactics, and perhaps even supervision of the launch very easily could have been us. Remember the “British” PBY Catalina that found the Bismark. It was being flown by a US Navy aviator who was there to “train” the British crews. Total sheep dip, he was operational and they sent a Brit along to make it “British”. But America was not in the war yet.
Guess we’ll see how angry they are, and what proof they have or don’t have. Really about anything could still be possible.
Could be Ukes with a homegrown missile, could be Brits “training” Ukes on a Harpoon. Could be us helping the Ukes. OR, it could even be a poorly maintained 40 year old ship running at high tempo with a barely trained crew had a devastating accident. And even if that was the case, the Russians might decide to use that as an excise to escalate.
Anything is still possible. Spooky stuff.
I don’t think people realize, Russia can’t afford to lose this war under any circumstance. It will be the greatest humiliation they’ve ever faced. Defeat for Russia means their nation carved up and divided under western stewardship and everyone in a position of government or military leadership swinging from gallows. Before they surrender, they will use every tool in their arsenal. Every tool.
Well modern day in any case.
Tsushima Straits Battle
Russian losses
5,045 dead
803 injured
6,016 captured
6 battleships sunk
1 coastal battleship sunk
14 other ships sunk
2 battleships captured
2 coastal battleships captured
1 destroyer captured
6 ships disarmed
(126,792 tons sunk)
Oh, and only time an entire fleet surrendered in the field
Having been directly involved with all sorts of weapons tests I can attest that they sometimes go badly. The purpose of the test is to find out what does not work and fix it. If it fails in a test and you fix the problem, that’s ideal. While it’s great that the tests all work, it’s not a bad thing to have a few failures. As for the aircraft carriers (bunker fuel, by-the-way) we lose planes too. I can think of two recent crashes in the Pacific of F-35’s. As for other crashes and bad occurrences, they happen regularly. Although, the rate at which they happen to the US Navy has been decreasing steadily.
Russia knows their aircraft carrier has little utility and the reasons they keep it around are entirely political. Probably similar to the reasons we are keeping the Independence class littoral combat ships even though they are of little practical value. Politics.
Just because a weapon, say, a broadsword, is obsolete does not mean that anyone wants to be hit by it.
I would guess that’s the cover from the launch tube.🤔
You forgot “there’s no need to panic”.😁
“ Anything is still possible. Spooky stuff.”
That’s the best thing that can be said about this entire sordid affair!
Wouldn’t they want to recover the tube after a few launches?
🤦
They probably have replacement covers.🤔
I hear he was not on board and may have been arrested. The ship’s captain was aboard and was KIA.
The Admiral may be court-martialed...............
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