Not surprising. Putin must be seething.
The attack happened after Ukrainian forces asked the Americans about a ship sailing in the Black Sea south of Odesa, U.S. officials told NBC News. The U.S. identified it as the Moskva, officials said, and helped confirm its location, after which the Ukrainians targeted the ship.
The U.S. did not know in advance that Ukraine was going to target the Moskva, officials said, and was not involved in the decision to strike.
Its problem
I thought it was going to be a dart board with a picture of Putin on it.
This seems to be unfounded but I had to post for the reply.
https://twitter.com/OSINT88/status/1522352991277359111?t=QErGhJxfWqwfufJEKkvWhw&s=19
https://twitter.com/Toby_K_B/status/1522388688818393089?t=3v8Y9GCU4hIwvT5r7pa4-g&s=19
multiple naval experts posted that even with “lighter” ship armor than previous generations, two neptunes (or harpoons in western terminology) should not sink a frigate, much less a cruiser, and moskva likely sank due to unsuccessful fire fighting efforts. it would be reasonable to assume the rest of the ships are more prepared for it now.
LMAO at the US being all like, “What? We didn’t know they were going to attack it!”
From what I’ve read poor preparation for fires is part of the design of the ships and training of the crews.
I haven’t seen any more info on this so rn I don’t know whether there was no attack, a successfully intercepted missile, a missile impact that did limited damage, or a missile strike that, however unlikely it seems, managed to do enough damage to sink this frigate. But if there was a successful strike, it would be another spectacular Russian failure, regardless of the amount of damage caused.
Very interesting interview: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/04/opinions/bergen-repass-ukraine-interview/index.html
https://twitter.com/liveuamap/status/1522507395750146048?s=21&t=_HJY5XVaWwRe_FzuQs4bfQ
So does russias navy just suck ass or is naval warfare not a great thing in 2022?
It doesn’t seem that implausible to me. I would assume the US was regularly helping Ukraine identify where Russian ships were. Russia has been posturing to invade Odesa for most of the war, so it’s natural that they’d want to keep tabs on where ships were.
https://twitter.com/spook_info/status/1521847310879182848
https://twitter.com/spook_info/status/1522223108697976832?s=21
Except for the paragraph at the end, this seems to have been written before the rumors. It had been staying out of harm’s way but if the rumors are true, may have come back in response to attacks by Ukraine on Russian equipment on Snake Island and patrol boats nearby.
I can’t imagine being bold enough to not only do this in Russia, but also film it. Knowing how they treat people who hold invisible protest signs, you have to assume this is a death sentence if they find you.
Defense has always had a big advantage. We just sort of forgot about it because most recent wars were lopsided matters where modern US stealth fighters took out a lot of defensive weapons before the attack even started.
I think it’s much more than that. During the Iraq war, it was standard for US tanks to laugh off Iraqi shoulder fired RPGs and then return fire. I don’t think they would be laughing off javelins or NLAWs. It’s also my understanding that the Neptunes are a big step forward in shore-to-sea anti-ship capability compared with anything that’s been deployed in warfare before.
I think it’s generally good for peace that anti-armor munitions have the edge over armored vehicles, though. An invading force always has to deal with the problem of delivering people to invade. No amount of aerial bombardment will ever really win a war. Walking people are slow and vulnerable but at least can be stealthy. Unarmored trucks are fast but pretty obvious and not much less vulnerable. Armor is a huge obvious target and really expensive but offers some protection and fire power, but if it too is easily neutralized, it leaves an invader with no good options. Well, air, I guess, but we’ve seen how well that goes without total air superiority. And amphibious assaults, which are vulnerable to those Neptunes. Bottom line, I hope Taiwan has a goodly stock of something like the Neptunes, and that China knows it and is paying attention to what is happening to the Russian navy.
https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1522597368440438784?s=20&t=djx3701h4bZkS9sgDUN7eg
Switchblade’s in the wild
Here’s some speculation that’s probably wrong but w/e. This video shows Ukrainians earlier taking out a Russian air defense system on Snake Island with a drone-delivered missile. (Maybe the AD system wasn’t active yet?)
https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1522525618432315393?s=20&t=FFjpp7VSgp7JYL75vP22iw
Following that, the two Russian patrol boats were also attacked by drones. There’s a video of that earlier itt. Without air defense, patrol boats are sitting ducks. Other ships in the area are also taking their chances. To remedy that, enter the frigate Makarov.
Hoping to hide from radar and the Neptune missile units near Odessa, and apparently not having read NYT, the Makarov’s captain positions his ship south of Snake Island. Unfortunately for him, the Ukrainians know his ship’s position better than he does. And ironically, maybe the island is now hiding incoming Neptune missiles from his radar. Until it’s too late and then bam.
Best to keep in mind there’s still not very good confirmation this even happened. There is video of a ship on fire circulating on Twitter but not everybody is convinced.