The flagship Moscow of the Russian Black Sea Fleet sank. According to the Ukrainian side, it was two Neptune missiles from Ukraine that sank the Moscow.
However, as a huge ship with a full displacement of 1.2 million tons, it is really incredible that this aircraft carrier can be sunk by two missiles. So why is this "steel behemoth" so fragile?
Why was the Moscow sunk?
In fact, in terms of positioning and design, the Moscow is more like an "armory", with strong firepower but poor bulletproof ability. This huge ship is equipped with a large number of ammunition depots, but these ammunition depots are seriously lacking in armor protection.
Ammunition depot of AK- 130 double barrel 130mm naval gun at the bow, 600 rounds of ammunition, two SA-N-4 short-range anti-aircraft missile ammunition depots in the middle of the ship, SA-N-6 vertical pit at the rear and a compartment for storing torpedoes.
On both sides of the warship, you can see the obviously exposed 16 missile launcher. So it is hard to say that the cruiser Moscow is a qualified warship. Whether it is World War II or modern war, in the eyes of enemy ships, it is an "ammunition depot" full of ammunition, and it can be martyred with one blow.
Moreover, as a member of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine is well aware of the weakness of this giant ship. Therefore, after Ukraine attacked the Moscow, it was good that the Moscow could intercept the incoming missiles. If it cannot be intercepted, the missile may cause a martyrdom explosion. Even if the Moscow doesn't sink, it will catch fire and cause serious losses.
The defects in Moscow can be made up or covered up during the Soviet era.
As a warship with regional air defense capability, Moscow's air defense capability is mainly to deal with medium and long-range ship-to-ship missiles overhead. In order to deal with short-range and medium-range missiles, even wolf tactics were adopted. When the skiff around the Moscow is touched, it will be handed over to other warships in the fleet for handling.
Under the Soviet Red Navy system, there was no big problem in the design of the Moscow, but the disintegration of the Soviet Union made Russia unable to undertake the Red Navy system. After Russia reduced the size of its fleet many times, the operational system that Moscow could adapt to was torn apart. It is difficult for Moscow itself to deal with the threat. It must find its own way to carry the light beam.
The weapons used by Ukraine happened to be in the defensive blind spot of the Moscow. Neptune missile is a subsonic missile. Although subsonic speed is a great disadvantage on the battlefield, it can fly across the sea, which is a fatal threat to Moscow.
Neptune missile adopts inertial guidance. If you don't turn on the radar halfway, it's hard for Moscow to find this sea-skimming "gadget". Coupled with the poor anti-missile capability of the Moscow, once two small missiles hit and cause a sympathetic explosion, the Moscow will suffer serious losses.
During the sinking of the "Moscow", it was obvious that it caught fire first, and then Russia caused the sinking while towing. This proves from the side that Neptune missile hit Moscow, causing martyrdom and sinking Moscow.
The doubts behind the sinking of the Moscow
Ukraine's sinking of the Moscow with Neptune missiles remains in doubt.
The first is distance. The cruiser Moscow sank about 80 kilometers off the Ukrainian coastline, while the maximum range of Neptune missile was about 280 kilometers. If Neptune missiles want to hit Moscow, they have to be deployed about 200 kilometers from the coastline.
This position is relatively short, and the vehicle body for launching Neptune missiles is relatively large. Therefore, it is a question for Ukraine to deploy missile positions without being discovered and destroyed by Russian troops.
The second question is the source of information.
It was not the Ukrainian military that sank the cruiser Moscow, but a group of administrative officials headed by Maxim Martzenko, the governor of Odessa, Ukraine, who first announced the news. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence claimed on social media that it had sunk the Moscow.
There is something fishy about it. How can the administrative departments in the world get battlefield information faster than the military? Therefore, behind the sinking of the Moscow, most of them are political factors in Ukraine.
Ukraine did not sink Moscow with its own Neptune missile, but with the NSM missile assisted by NATO. Or simply Moscow, Russia, secretly sunk by NATO.
Why does Ukraine claim that its own Neptune missile sank the Moscow? On the one hand, it can better boost morale and pull back the public opinion situation on the battlefield. Secondly, Ukraine sank the Russian flagship with NATO weapons, which may be that Russia "overreacted" and NATO may also stop Ukraine.
With the sinking of the Moscow, the combat effectiveness of the already thin Russian navy was further reduced. More than 5,000 tons of warships of the Russian Navy are "Soviet warships" with a ship age of more than 30 years. Russia lacks sufficient shipbuilding capacity to upgrade its navy.
For a long time, the Russian Black Sea Fleet will face a shortage of main warships. Russia can buy main warships from other countries to maintain the size and capability of the Black Sea Fleet. Either let the position of the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet be vacant for a long time and maintain the weak combat effectiveness of the Black Sea Fleet.
Of course, there are more drastic measures, that is, Russia directly adjusts the development and deployment of the navy and positions the Black Sea Fleet as an "inland fleet".
Originally, the Black Sea Fleet had to pass through the Constantinople Strait before it could enter the sea. Whether the Russian Black Sea Fleet can play its combat effectiveness depends on the diplomatic relations between Russia and Turkey. If Russia focuses its naval development on the Northern Fleet, many problems on the Black Sea Fleet will not need to be considered.