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Key Russian warship 'severely' damaged in the Black Sea

Well, I read they did move their ships south... that's a good direction, away from Ukraine. As long as their missiles can't still hit inland from there.

Can you imagine being a regular old merchant ship trying to make a delivery on the Black Sea right now, with missiles winging overhead, etc? Dangerous job for them, too.
There are allegedly loose mines floating in our close to the Black Sea now. Russia blames Ukraine but we know how that goes.
 
I was reading an article today about this story. It's amazing for 2 reasons:

1) How a single cruiser could end up being so pivotal to key Russian invasion plans.. for instance, an amphibious invasion is now off the table logistically without the Moskva.
2) For how valuable as the Movska was, it was INSANE for the Russians to be manuevering her so close to shore.

The Moskva is a key piece of the Russian invasion plan that they can't replace.

They may now find it hard to even maintain supply lines to Crimea.
It can be replaced IF Turkey allows one of its counterparts currently in the Mediterranean to sail through the Bosporus Straits. We'll see what Turkey is made of.
 
There are allegedly loose mines floating in our close to the Black Sea now. Russia blames Ukraine but we know how that goes.
I didn't know you could mine the water. That sucks.
 
I didn't know you could mine the water. That sucks.
Yes you can suspend them under the water line at various depths where it's hard to detect them. That said sonar as advanced so much I think my side-finder fish finder sonar could probably detect them. If that's the case perhaps ships have even better capability.
 
Update: The Russian government has confirmed confirmed ship has sunk.

Russian warship sinks after Ukraine claims it struck ship with missiles


The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that its Black Sea Fleet flagship vessel, Moskva, sunk after losing its stability when it was towed to a port. Russia said the ship sustained damages during a fire started by the detonation of ammunition.


Heh.......karma is a bitch.
 

Yep, just as I have been saying; when a major fire can't be put out and is still burning the next day, while the crew has been evacuated, the ship is doomed. Either has a burnt out hull or sinking.

Numerous reports had it way down by the port side or capsized from the attack. Would not be surprised if the claim of towing was a bit of a ruse, a failed attempt from the git go followed by the ships final plunge.

Question now is, how many of the crew were really saved? Had to be causalities from explosion of that size and so far only 54 have been accounted for.
 
Yep, just as I have been saying; when a major fire can't be put out and is still burning the next day, while the crew has been evacuated, the ship is doomed. Either has a burnt out hull or sinking.

Numerous reports had it way down by the port side or capsized from the attack. Would not be surprised if the claim of towing was a bit of a ruse, a failed attempt from the git go followed by the ships final plunge.

Question now is, how many of the crew were really saved? Had to be causalities from explosion of that size and so far only 54 have been accounted for.
538 officers and enlisted.

Last I heard, 54 were recovered.
 
There are so many eyes on that area of the world that I don't think the Russians can hide a missile strike for long, if it was a missile strike.
They're hiding it now beneath the waves. You can't hide any more than that.
 

Russian warship sinks after Ukraine claims it struck ship with missiles


The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that its Black Sea Fleet flagship vessel, Moskva, sunk after losing its stability when it was towed to a port. Russia said the ship sustained damages during a fire started by the detonation of ammunition.


Heh.......karma is a bitch.

Yep it is. And I've discovered more about the Neptune missile. Modified from an old Soviet design a booster was added, and new seeker designed for the head, and a new ground based radar.

The "Mineral U" ground based radar is over the horizon, reaching 370 miles.
The Neptune has double the range of its predecessor, about 190 miles.
It's a sea skimmer, probably subsonic, with a very effective seeker head that scans for ships or convoys within 30 miles.
It's not quite as large as other western anti-ship missiles but it is still quite deadly. One can sink a ship up to 5,000 tons, and two can sink a ship of 12,000, which is cruiser sized.

Here is a youtube of it in testing against a target:

 
The Ukrainian High Command and the Mayor of Odesa (fired from) said two Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles were fired at the Moskva.
I heard on MSNBC tonight that The Moskva was hit by missiles designed by Ukraine itself, not by ones supplied by foreign powers. I came to Debate Politics to see if there were any good threads about the sinking of the Moskva and was pleased to find this one. (Litwin also posted one, but Rogue Valley alluded to the missiles Ukraine used.) Here is some more information I found about the missiles. I can understand why the Ukrainians would be proud!


"What are Neptune missiles?

RK-360MT Neptunes are mobile anti-ship cruise missile capable of destroying targets within a range of 300 km.

The 16-ft long engine-powered missiles can travel at speeds of up to 560mph (900 km/h) and at heights of between nine and 30ft above the surface.

The weapons, which are able to be mounted on ships, by land and by air launchers, were formally adopted by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in August, 2020.

Weighing 870 kg and carrying a 150kg warhead, they are capable of destroying targets of up to 5,000 tons, using a radar-homing guidance to home in on enemy ships.

The blog BMPD run by Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) an independent Russian research organisation, reports that one Neptune division normally has six USPU-360 launchers capable of firing a salvo of the 24 anti-ship missiles.
When did Ukraine get them?

In March, 2021, Ukraine beefed up its coastal defences against Russia when its navy obtained the first units of the cruise missile system.

The navy’s top commanding officer, Rear Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, said at the time: “This system was designed to defend Ukraine in the Azov and the Black seas.

'This will be Ukraine’s missile shield in the sea.'

The Neptune system was designed by Kyiv-based defence manufacturer LUCH Design Bureau, from which Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence ordered its first batch of the missiles.

A project to develop the weapons was launched in 2014 after Ukraine lost nearly 80 percent of its naval vessels following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

According to the Kyiv Post newspaper, Ukraine’s military had planned to put three divisions of Neptune cruise missile systems into service by 2025 along the Black and Azov seas coastline, with one of the batteries on permanent standby duty."

 
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Not really. Its job was to provide the defense for the others. They've been bombing Kyiv today--don't know how they were launched, but I hope the ships at sea are now too far away, at least for now.
 
I highly doubt Turkey will allow either of Russia's two remaining "Slava class" heavy cruisers into the Black Sea.

Zelenskyy advisor Oleksiy Arestovych has posted a video to Twitter showing what he said was Russia's Moskva cruiser being struck by Ukraine's Neptune Missiles (the bright flash)

 
I highly doubt Turkey will allow either of Russia's two remaining "Slava class" heavy cruisers into the Black Sea.

Zelenskyy advisor Oleksiy Arestovych has posted a video to Twitter showing what he said was Russia's Moskva cruiser being struck by Ukraine's Neptune Missiles (the bright flash)


I am sorry to display my ignorance publicly, but what is the situation on The Black Sea now? What ships does Russia have there at the moment? If the Moskva was the flagship, it implies that there were other ships in its fleet. Are you saying that certain ships can only enter The Black Sea through the Bosporous, not from Russian ports on the Black Sea? I did not know that since I have no idea what ships are used in warfare between Russia and Ukraine. Does anyone feel like giving a tutorial (or linking to one) from this thread?
 
I dunno which explanation is worse for the Russians, it being sunk by Ukrainian missile or it being sunk because the crew were inept idiots who managed to set it on fire. Surprised Russia went with the later one, in my ears this explanation is way worse than sunk by the enemy.
 
OK. I see That Turkey closed the Bosporus to warships under The Montreux Convention. I still do not know whether that makes it impossible for Russia to use warships launched from Russian ports into The Black Sea.

 
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