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Best Served Cold
This is, or was (heh heh), the Moskva. Last time I saw her she was still calling herself Slava.
The best version of the story I’ve heard is that the Ukes distracted this sophisticated warship, bristling with radars, with a drone decoy while they put a couple of homegrown cruise missiles into her. I hope it’s true. Good shooting, guys.
Ships die from fire. Moskva probably took a hit in one of her many magazines; the Reds are calling this an “ammunition explosion.” Ok, so now she’s a wreck inside – you have to put out the fires and control the flooding. Damage control has always been the USN’s other secret weapon, right beside underway replenishment. The Red Navy was never known for the quality of its sailors – so they probably never had good DC.
We weren’t afraid of Slava; her radars were primitive then too. Those city-bus-sized missiles are fast, but fat targets for an SM-2. But we were grateful after the fall of the USSR that we wouldn’t have to run that live test.
Russia’s navy sucks, that’s obvious. How bad does the CIC have to be to let two vampires in? Moskva had plenty of short-range missiles and close-in defensive guns, not to mention all the radar Russia can muster. But the most telling thing is they evacuated the crew.
You can read up on the Slava cruisers at Wikipedia, where the photo above links. Just like the Sukhoi, the Russians do build them pretty.
Published in General
If anyone would like to share that more easily:
The Moskva being towed into port:
There was no Russian air support for the Moskva. Cruise missiles fly just above the waves and then pop-up just before they hit the targeted ship. This is why US carriers have aircraft in the air at all times in troubled waters, as well as fast attack submarines as part of their protection.
The drone feint is possibly true due to the fact that part of the Moskva radar protection was limited to 180 degrees. US satellites had real time images of the Moskva, and probably know exactly where every Russian warship is in the Black Sea.
I’m reminded too of an old joke, something about how the new Italian (I think it was) Navy ships had glass bottoms so they could always see the old Italian Navy…
Admiral Halsey, at the start of WW2, said the US navy was willing to split the Pacific Ocean with the Japanese navy- they could have the bottom.
Gotta luv it.
It’s been going on for hundreds of years, at least since a bunch of ragtag farmers with muskets beat the superpower of the 18th century.
Evidence that the Neptune missiles hit the large cruise missile battery located on the sides of the Moskva (a known vulnerability of Russian ship design)