Fire breaks out onboard Moskva missile cruiser, crew evacuated

A fire and subsequent broadside munitions blast have done serious damage to the Moskva missile cruiser of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the crew was evacuated, the Russian defense ministry said on Thursday.

"A fire onboard the Mosvka missile cruiser caused a blast of the broadside munitions. The ship received serious damage. The crew was evacuated," the ministry said, adding that a probe in underway.

The Moskva, the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship, is the head vessel of Project 1164 Atlant. It was put into operation as the Slava in 1983 and received its current name in 1996. The ship is equipped with 16 P-1000 Vulkan missile launcers.

I’m not sure they’re so much inherently outdated as much as the training of the crew and doctrine needs to be adjusted. I would also say that the Black Sea is a special case - it’s (relatively) small and if the Turks don’t want to let you in or out, it’s a closed environment. Remember too that the Moskva isn’t/wasn’t in its 1983 configuration but has received several waves of updates.

In that environment, something smallish with a titanic Sunday punch (and that’s leaving out nuke tipped missiles from consideration) could cause enormously disproportionate damage and casualties for any task force that comes looking for it - if handled properly by the commander and crew. It was actually designed to handle swarming missile attacks - it has *six* CIWS equivalents on board, more than we ever fitted to even US capital ships or carriers.

If reports are correct, Moskva got hit by two Neptun missiles, which are derivatives of the old Cold War AS-20 “Kayak” or Kh35. They’re the old missile with increased range and better electronics. It isn’t actually hugely more sophisticated than the original, I don’t think. Technically speaking, even if the TB2-bait-Neptun-punch scheme is what happened, the Moskva should have been relatively easily able to deal with it if it had salvoed its missiles to clear them off the decks.

In short - I don’t think as a concept the ship was outdated for the theater it’s operating in.

I highly doubt that is true anymore. The western nations have pushed more than 20,000 missiles into Ukraine. That is more missiles than Russia has tanks or aircraft in TOTAL. More than one missile for each tank or plane is amazing. They’ve also sent thousands of machine guns, ammunition, grenade launchers, drones, electronic gear, thermal and night vision goggles, body armor, and other weapons. Ukraine has also captured dozens and dozens of Russian missile launchers, Armored vehicles, guns, and ammunition. Now they are also getting helicopters, tanks, and more armored vehicles.

This doesn’t include Ukraine’s domestic industries, which also produce weapons.

Actually, Ukraine has gotten stronger with each passing day.

“Do you see torpedo boats?”

That said... even the Japanese respected the ferocity and valor with which major elements of the Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron fought.

Though I think everyone on both sides was happy when some Japanese ship finally sunk the Kamchatka. :P

there are cases of wars being provoked for domestic political reasons throughout history. often the result was not what was intended.

In this case I think staying in power is the intended goal. I suspect the timing of all of this has this november at the center of planning.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.