The first image of the guided missile cruiser Moskva of the Russian Navy that sank a few days ago, via @Bormanike

Ukraine Weapons Tracker ^ | 17-APR-2022 | Ukraine Weapons Tracker

[SpeedyInTexas]

The first image of the guided missile cruiser Moskva of the Russian Navy that sank a few days ago, via @Bormanike.

Depending on the side you choose to believe, the ship was either hit by 2x R-360 "Neptun" ASMs, or suffered a catastrophic ammunition fire. You decide.

[JohnBovenmyer]

> The Black Sea is relatively shallow.

Yes, especially in its N, where she likely went down. I’d expect them to have resources capable of reaching there. But do they have them in that theater, and if not, are the air transportable? Turkey may block sea entrants.

[Houserino]

It would be so great if we could salvage another warhead or 2 from the russians. I’m not sure they have any capability anymore to even do a salvage operation in fairly shallow water.

[MHGinTN]

Looks more like an Oops than an Oh Shit!

[no-s]

> Looks like missile strike damage

Or maybe an enormous rust-out at the waterline...

[EQAndyBuzz]

Aliens.

[shotgun]

That’ll buff out.

[SpeedyInTexas]

Capt(N) comments:

First impressions of this shocking photo. Life-saving equipment (rescue rafts) on board are missing, which means they were dropped into the water during the rescue operation./1

The cargo crane is not in a diametrically position and was apparently used to launch ship’s boats.The doors of the helicopter hangar are open,but the flight deck is cluttered and not prepared for flights. It is likely that the helicopter remained on board the ship./2

Numerous black spots on board may indicate an internal fire in the compartments of the ship.The antennas of the air defense and SAM radars are in the diametrically position. Cruise missile launchers are not damaged./3

Apparently, the missile strike hit the base of the ship’s bow superstructure. The explosion of the warheads and the burning of the remnants of missile fuelled to the detonation of the anti-submarine ammunition (RBU-6000) cellars, which were located below the waterline./4

Unfortunately,the cruiser looks abandoned to the their of fate.There are no other rescue ships and a tugboat visible near the ship, although the time of day and the weather are favorable.Apparently,at the time of taking the photo,the ship had already been abandoned by the crew./5

These my express conclusions and analysis of one photo do not claim to be an indisputable truth, but only my assumptions. I think we will get more information to think about in the near future.6/6

[Chainmail]

Uh, no. You two seemed to have gone to the same engineering school. Volts describe potential, Watts (Volts times Amps) describes actual energy delivered.

Meters describe distance, square meters describes the area the energy is delivered to.

Neither one of you have done any EMP work, have you?

[SpaceBar]

A little Bondo, a little paint...

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Damn, that thing looks like it was a piece of shit even before it got hit by a missile.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Russkies have been spouting insane BS about the power of their weapons for decades. I’ve yet to see it.

[Lazamataz]

That photo has a farming tractor pulling the ship.

[Dundee]

Assuming the photo is relatively genuine (I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some minor photoshopping of it in some places) I basically agree with your analysis.

Maybe 1 missile impact forward of the bridge consistent with a radar guided weapon (that area has the biggest radar return on most warships). Hard to see if there is any visible blast damage so maybe either the missile punched in deep into the lower decks before exploding or the warhead failed to detonate but big burning chunks of missile shotgunned her in the guts.

I get the feeling that a crew who were squared away on DC might have saved her (assuming the material condition of her DC kit was up to standard). Moskva was a big ship with 500+ crew and was on the receiving end of a strike comparable to USS STARK (a ship less than a third her size).

The more I look at this the more I’m thinking that Ivan’s DC is in dire need improvement.

[BenLurkin]

Yes, I nabbed it off a gag thread from yesterday.

[BenLurkin]

Yes, I nabbed it off a gag thread from yesterday.

[hanamizu]

I’d expect them to have resources capable of reaching there.

---

But they didn’t have the resources to reach Kursk when she sank. They had to call for help to reach her (after any hope of saving what remained of her crew).

[Dundee]

Belay that last remark about the missile hitting forward of the bridge. After relooking at pictures of Moskva before her submarine promotion, it looks like the missile hit forward of the exhaust trunking but aft of the bridge so making the impact roughly midships (which means the Neptune’s seeker is probably more advanced than I originally gave it credit for).

Notice her OSA-M launchers aren’t deployed down aft? I’m not sure that after the ship got hit they would have taken the time (or had the power available) to retract the launcher. Plus the angle isn’t good but I’m not seeing any sign of a S-300 launch.

Maybe, just maybe, the Ukrainians lucked out and managed to catch Moskva with her pants down like USS STARK.

[pfflier]

Maybe that is a tractor towing it...ya think??

[Steve Van Doorn]

P-500 Bazalt or P-1000 where the old missiles. Either way those are 2000 pound Ship to shop missiles. Which is about the damage the ship took it seems.
It's listing to on the side of the photo was taken or starboard side where two of the water cannons are hitting with water. I don't understand why one of the water cannons are cooling down the helicopter pad? Why are there burned marks all over the side of the ship? The whole deck burn?

[Widget Jr]

#1, #48. Looks like a amidships hit, under the port side AK-630 anti-missile guns (is it me, or does this cake have a lot of icing on it?). The list to port and the charring on the hull indicates flooding on that side and most likely a waterline hit. From what I can see zooming in, the all the P-500/P-1000 missile launchers are intact although they are obscured by smoke. A few meters forward and the Neptunes would have hit under aft most P-500/P-1000 missile launcher(☹️).

From what I can find, it looks like the Moskva might have been 3 to 3.5 miles from shore, around Snake Island when she was hit. Her systems were forty years old and the status of her sensors and fire control system upgrades are unknown. My guess is it is likely the ship's radar could not easily detect a low flying missile over land, and when it crossed the beach, the crew had at little as 20 to 15 to respond.

Using her as a command ship out of necessity is one thing, using her inshore like that was really risky. Land based artillery or artillery rockets could have taken a shot at her, and the Russian navy is not known for excellence in damage control.

Some more interesting pieces of the puzzle. The Moskva was built by Ukraine while Ukraine was exploited by in the USSR. They know the class's strengths and weaknesses as well as the Russians. It has been reported the ship's radar can see only in the forward 180* has a blind spot aft (I can not confirm this). HI Sutton reported that the ship was moving in a pattern for the last month. Since 2014, when Russia "annexed" Crimea, Ukraine has been preparing for this conflict. Finally, the Neptune missile was first introduced in 2015, so Russia knew Ukraine had a few of them. Given what Ukraine has done so far, the Russia navy knew enough to be cautious close to shore.

Just like the Russian army and air force, the Russian navy made a lot of mistakes and Ukraine was not being stupid as much as being smart.