several russian and ukrainian analysts have said in the past few days that putin currently holds some material advantage, but in fact he is in zugzwang. there are few high probability developments that can positively affect his position. he has no more forces for another blitzkrieg, he can only fire ~ 20 rockets per day, taking mariupol against even a hundred defenders fighting to the end is a pyrrhic victory for a huge price. russian army and fleet have lost hundreds of billions $ worth of lives and equipment.
in less than four weeks he is supposed to hold a parade in moscow. lol. ycbwf
Some absolutely chilling statements from various stooges.
It’s no accident we call them Nazis,” said Margarita Simonyan, who also heads the Kremlin-backed media group that operates the Sputnik and RIA Novosti news agencies. “What makes you a Nazi is your bestial nature, your bestial hatred and your bestial willingness to tear out the eyes of children on the basis of nationality.
On state television, a military analyst doubled down on Russia’s need to win and called for concentration camps for Ukrainians opposed to the invasion.
Two days later, the head of the defense committee in the lower house of parliament said it would take 30 to 40 years to “reeducate” Ukrainians.
And on a talk show, the editor in chief of the English-language television news network RT described Ukrainians’ determination to defend their country as “collective insanity.”
“What makes them Nazis? They are animals! But don’t worry, folks, we have a solution for the Ukrainians, a final solution. Concentration camps!” It’s as evil as it is stupid.
I’m having trouble reconciling the phrase “modern air defense system” with the idea that they could only engage one target at a time. I mean, what was the plan if an enemy attacks with missiles from two directions?
Read some speculation on Twitter that the TB-2 was doing recon, and that Ukraine is just trolling Russia by claiming that their flagship got distracted by it
I’m curious if the Ukrainians could have been taking out smaller ships with the missiles, but waited for a better prize so as not to alert the Russians of the capabilities.
They only got this type of missile recently but this would have been their prime target as it was supposed to provide cover for other ships so definitely worth waiting for.
Would love to get details on how they managed to hit it though as the single decoy story has to be bullshit. They either managed to get real close somehow or the US has provided radar jamming combined with multiple missiles and decoys.
But the priority in the creation of the Project 1164 cruisers was given to offensive rather than defensive characteristics. Ships have a reduced stock of S-300F - 64 missiles, compared to 96 on the Project 1144 cruiser; the weak point is self-defense air defense, which consists of only two outdated Osa-M air defense systems (for comparison, Project 1144 cruisers have 16 Dagger launchers) and insufficiently effective automatic guns. In addition, due to the presence of only one 3P41 Volna guidance radar, the Fort anti-aircraft complex can be used to repel an attack from only one direction at a time, and if a single 3P41 Volna radar fails, long-range air defense of the ship will be completely paralyzed. For comparison, Project 1144 cruisers have two 3P41 radars, which allows them to repel attacks from several directions at the same time and not risk losing their defenses when the radar fails.
there’s just no way a single or even double cruise missile hit can sink a cruiser. that scenario is like a 80-1 underdog in my estimation. if it exploded ordinance on the ship, maybe i would believe it, but seriously that would be monumental errors in storing or handling those.
That was just a summary of what I read on Twitter, including that their radar was limited to a 180 degree view at any one time. So the theory was the qb was fixated on what was happening down field. But they had multiple radar systems.
The cruiser is equipped with a triple-tiered air defence system that if operating properly should give it three opportunities to defend itself from a Neptune missile attack.
In addition to medium- and short-range defences, it can engage six short-range close-in weapon systems (CIWS) as a last resort.
“The Moskva should have 360-degree anti-air defence coverage. The CIWS system can fire 5,000 rounds in a minute, essentially creating a wall of flak around the cruiser, its last line of defence,” Mr Bentham said.
If the strike is proven to have come from a missile it “raises questions over the capabilities of the modernisation of the Russian surface fleet: whether it had enough ammunition, whether it had engineering issues”.
“Essentially, you’d have thought that with that three-tiered anti-air defence system it would be very hard to hit,” the military expert added.
The weather and sea conditions could have limited their ability to see the incoming missiles. Or maybe the radar guy went to the toilet. Or maybe they forgot to do a crazy Ivan.
Since I don’t recall seeing it here, and just for anyone who might not know, Moskva is Russian for Moscow. It is literally their capital ship (although I have no idea if there are any other more important ships in the Baltic or Pacific).
