[Goose]

Russia confirms!!!!!! 



Reportedly the previous SOS signals that were being intercepted from the ship (I didn't mention in my earlier post because I was somewhat skeptical), have since stopped. The Moskva is likely at the bottom of the Black Sea. Russian Black Sea flagship, sunk by a country with no Navy. The Ukrainians are doing some incredible stuff, but WOW the Russians are being exposed in so many ways by this war, this was the ship that supposed to protect all their other ships from missile attacks! Russia better hope Ukraine doesn't have many more of those Neptune missiles or their entire Black Sea fleet could be in trouble. The missiles reportedly have a 190 mile range, well more than most fielded Harpoon variants particularly the surface launched ones. Once Ukraine wins this war, their defense industry will probably have a lot of orders- their Stugna/Skif antitank missiles have been performing very well too, for much lower price than a Javelin or NLAW.

Ukraine already has a contract with Indonesia for the Neptune. It is an upgrade of an existing Russian system. Still a very nice weapon system. There are web sites out there that point out that the entire Black Sea fleet is at risk if the Ukraine has a 300km range weapon.

We don't yet know if the ship has sunk, but the Russians themselves have stated the crew has been evacuated. How many casualties naturally was not announced. The weather is bad, and without a crew one would expect the ship will sink/has sunk. We will probably know tomorrow if the weather clears a bit.

The problem with very long range anti-shipping missiles is targeting. A ship's radar horizon isn't that far. A 100 foot high mast allows you to see about 12.5 miles. Therefore, if you want to fire a missile at a ship 180 miles away, somebody else has to tell you where that ship is. How the Ukrainians managed that problem is an interesting question. Did the Moskva get too close to Odesa, did the Ukrainians use an aircraft, or did they have "help"?

[Goose]

Russia confirms!!!!!! 



Reportedly the previous SOS signals that were being intercepted from the ship (I didn't mention in my earlier post because I was somewhat skeptical), have since stopped. The Moskva is likely at the bottom of the Black Sea. Russian Black Sea flagship, sunk by a country with no Navy. The Ukrainians are doing some incredible stuff, but WOW the Russians are being exposed in so many ways by this war, this was the ship that supposed to protect all their other ships from missile attacks! Russia better hope Ukraine doesn't have many more of those Neptune missiles or their entire Black Sea fleet could be in trouble. The missiles reportedly have a 190 mile range, well more than most fielded Harpoon variants particularly the surface launched ones. Once Ukraine wins this war, their defense industry will probably have a lot of orders- their Stugna/Skif antitank missiles have been performing very well too, for much lower price than a Javelin or NLAW.

Ukraine already has a contract with Indonesia for the Neptune. It is an upgrade of an existing Russian system. Still a very nice weapon system. There are web sites out there that point out that the entire Black Sea fleet is at risk if the Ukraine has a 300km range weapon.

We don't yet know if the ship has sunk, but the Russians themselves have stated the crew has been evacuated. How many casualties naturally was not announced. The weather is bad, and without a crew one would expect the ship will sink/has sunk. We will probably know tomorrow if the weather clears a bit.

The problem with very long range anti-shipping missiles is targeting. A ship's radar horizon isn't that far. A 100 foot high mast allows you to see about 12.5 miles. Therefore, if you want to fire a missile at a ship 180 miles away, somebody else has to tell you where that ship is. How the Ukrainians managed that problem is an interesting question. Did the Moskva get too close to Odesa, did the Ukrainians use an aircraft, or did they have "help"?