And he (Putin) can’t dance.
From a Richard Pryor bit: ‘Your dick is short, and you can’t even screw!’
Fairly predictable for Vlad.
Not surprised that this is the response to losing the Moskva.
My husband reminded me that back in the Glasnost era, one of those Slava class ships actually docked in Norfolk, VA on a ‘friendship’ visit and we took a tour of it. He was in the Navy at the time and I worked for one of the training commands on the base.
The ship we saw was the Marshal Ustinov. We still have the pamphlet they handed out which included a brief history of the Soviet Navy and so forth (I uploaded some pics of a few of the pages).
Husband remembers thinking the Ustinov wasn’t particularly well made and that the missile bays were poorly shielded should the ship be hit - thus potentially causing what it seems to have happened with the Moskva. It was a new ship at the time, too.
Yeah, the external missile launchers look like a massive vulnerability.
Are they really more vulnerable than on other ships? I kind of thought the same thing when I toured the USS New Jersey; the Harpoon missile launchers looked really exposed, but maybe that’s just because that wasn’t what that ship was designed for.
Latest campaign assessment from the Institute for the Study of War:
On the impact of losing the Moskva in purely operational terms:
Kinda cool the way Russia commemorated the 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
An interesting addition I don’t think they had before is “Ukrainian partisans have likely been active in the Melitopol region since at least mid-March.” referring to internal attacks in a Russian occupied region.
From a couple of days ago:
Ukrainian special forces destroyed a bridge. If the stated location of Borova is correct, then that means Ukrainian forces are interdicting a key supply line to Izium, where the Russians are predicted to begin their attempt to encircle the Donbas.
Tonight, there’s another fire in Belgorod across the border in Russia:
Yes, the New Jersey is an old battleship, not a guided missile cruiser, so not comparable. The US equivalent to the Slava class is the Ticonderoga class:
No external missiles to be seen on Ticonderoga-class:
Here again, with missiles out:
Moderating:
I feel like your “let’s escalate” posts aren’t really appropriate for this breaking news thread. You might want to find a more commentary-themed Ukrainian war thread to post them in. Or if there isn’t one already, you could start one.
Thanks.
Sounds like MiGs might be back on the table, transported via rail.
Factoid I did not know: one issue regarding rail transport of arms is that Soviet-era railways are a wider gauge than what is used in most of Europe, which limits how items can be transported into Ukraine, since their rail system uses the Soviet gauge. Slovakia’s rail system is the same and they seem to be cool with providing the transport.
From this article about transporting the donated S-300 anti-aircraft system:
Other big items now under discussion for transport to Ukraine via Slovakia include aging MIG-29 warplanes and sophisticated, self-propelled Howitzers called Zuzana 2. Also under review is a plan for Ukraine to send hundreds of damaged tanks, some of them captured from Russian forces, across the border for repair in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland, all of which have experience fixing Soviet-made equipment.
I wouldn’t want to be the person who hoses out the body parts.
Nice timing of the Ukrainian F@%K You postal stamp showing a soldier flipping off the ship that just sank. I wonder who will be the first to mail a letter to Putin with that stamp.
I recall reading back in the '80s an analysis of the Soviet blue-water navy. It said they looked fierce with all those missile tubes topside but those were all they had. There was no reload capacity – they had to return to port after firing them.
That’s not just the Russians. It is mostly true with the U.S. navy as well in recent decades. Missile reloads at sea are apparently pretty tricky when they’re even practical at all, especially the big suckers like cruise missiles. Basically most/all modern warships pretty much are designed to shoot their wad and then return to port to reload.
I think the Iowa-BBs could reload their Tomahawks. That’s why they were recommissioned.
I guess that might make a certain amount of sense. They were designed to haul a shit-ton of ordnance for those big guns and missiles are pretty similarly shaped to those big shells. And they were massively armored to withstand heavy shells, so carrying all that HE material wasn’t quite as tinderbox dangerous to a missile strike.
However modern warships are definitely not built with those design goals in mind.