We have an Ace

It proceeded the highlighted route.

 

US to give helicopters to Ukraine.

 

Plus 155 mm howitzers and ammo. Those can actually outrange ships armed with 5" guns, especially if we send them some sabot rounds.

Withdrawal of their ships from vulnerability to cruise missiles means less anti-air support for Russian troops. Moskva's primary role was long range anti-air and C&C, and that capability is lost to them now. She provided air cover for the entire Black Sea fleet and was never designed to support amphibious operations or shore bombardment.

 

Fascinating Twitter thread about Ukrainian tactics in sinking the Moskva...

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Apparently, the Moskva had two main radars, a long range phased array and a shorter range low power radar (maybe so they don't conflict?). The long range radar only has 180 degrees of coverage, while the short range radar is 360. The Ukrainians had a Bakratyr drone in the air, which was a threat to the Moskva and was probably distracting the long range radar in the opposite direction from the Neptune missiles.

Because the seas were fairly high, the short range radar couldn't distinguish the low flying missiles from the wave tops.

Really smart.

 

Don- Affirmative, her radars were fairly old tech, even though she was refitted in 2010. The phased array radar is likely a planar array where beam shaping is electronic, but scanning was mechanical. The short range radar was probably even lower tech. Much of Russia's defense budget was diverted rather than being used to improve capability.

 

This stuff is way beyond me and I'm glad that somebody knows what is going on.

 

Hit by 2 missiles. Sank under tow.

 

Russian Ministry of Defence statement: “The cruiser ship Moskva lost its stability when it was towed to the port because of the damage to the ship’s hull
that it received during the fire from the detonation of ammunition. In stormy sea conditions, the ship sank.”
.

 

Broken Arrow:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10721351/Ukraine-war-Fears-Moskva-warship-carrying-nuclear-weapons-sank.html

 

The "under tow" thing seems a bit unlikely to me. The Turks rescued some of the sailors and then it sank almost right away, so I don't think it was under tow for long, if at all.

The fact that the Turks had to rescue the sailors is interesting-- where were the Moskva's support ships?

 

Moskva was the only nuclear-capable ship in the current Black Sea fleet, so one less way Putin can use a tactical nuke. No telling whether she had any onboard. Speculation now. The Turks have essentially shut down the Dardanelles and Bosphorous straits to warships so Moskva will not be replaced.

Russians are repositioning their Black Sea fleet to prevent a reoccurrence. Makes it more irrelevant to the war now. Further deployment of long-range cruise missiles from the coast near Odessa could make Crimea untenable for the Russians under wartime conditions. Russians crossing their feet to save bullets.

 

My FIL had a PhD in math. Back in the 80's he did a lot of work on algorithms to reduce the radar clutter due to waves. This was for the Navy to help combat sea-skimming missiles.

My FIL spoke, and wrote in, a language that involved a bunch of funny characters. Way over my head.

 

I was an electronic warfare officer in USAF while a WSO in F-111s. We had to be knowledgeable about radars as part of the job. Chem/math helped, but not all EWOs had tech degrees.

 

Drone footage of BTR vs. Tank battle.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/us-news/5131995/video-ukrainian-vehicle-destroys-russian-tank-donetsk/

 

Is that because the Russians are supplying Crimea by sea?

 

Don- Affirmative and now they have lost one major combatant and one troop/supply transport. That is one reason Putin wanted the land bridge from Russia in case ship traffic was interdicted and why they are all in on Mariupol. We need to sneak some Harpoons or something more advanced to the Ukrainians. A couple more losses and Crimea turns pretty useless as Russia's primary Black Sea port.

 

Britain supplied them already.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10697657/Britain-send-anti-ship-missiles-armoured-vehicles-Ukraine-Putins-offensive-ramps-up.html

 

Russian Bombers Just Carpet-Bombed Mariupol

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/04/15/russian-bombers-just-carpet-bombed-mariupol/?sh=267f71717b28

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^ This is why Ukraine needs better air defense systems.

 

The Russians never invested too much in WRSK (war readiness spares kits) or PGM inventories so we can expect to see a steady decline in Russian air force effectiveness from lack of weapons and lack of aircraft availability. Note that is not just the Russians, but also applies to our NATO allies. Every time our allies got in a fight, they quickly ran out of PGMs and we had to resupply them. PGM inventories are expensive, as are WRSK, and the US has been the only nation really taking them seriously, except maybe the Chinese. We have little insight into Chinese inventories.

 

Not sure I would call that carpet-bombing, but it does have its uses, although not on civilian areas. The US put it to good use during the Vietnam War.

 

The BUFFs scared the crap out of the Iraqis during Desert Storm. They could not hit anything from 45,000', but a string of bombs a hundred yards wide and a quarter of a mile long from a clear blue sky with little to no sound freaked them out. Those drops were all out in the desert, though. We would have been hung for targeting civilian areas.

 

Yes, over the jungle and the Ho Chi Min trail. Not innocent civilians.

 

It really depends on whether you end up being the winner. The winner determines who gets hung. Plenty of carpet bombing of civilian areas in WWII.

 

Not in Desert Storm. We knew we were going to win, and we still would have been hung. They even saved some of our video to see if a war crime had been committed. None were from our unit.