The Paper's reporter Xie Ruiqiang
Whether it was a fire or an explosion triggered by a Ukrainian missile, as the flagship of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, the serious damage to the cruiser "Moscow" was a huge loss for the Russian Navy.
On April 14, local time, the Russian Ministry of Defense released a message saying that the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship "Moscow" missile cruiser caught fire and caused the ammunition carried by the warship to explode, and the ship was seriously damaged. At present, all the crew on board have been evacuated and the cause of the fire is being investigated.
The head of the Ukrainian Odessa Military and Political Administration said on the 13th that the Ukrainian army used the "Neptune" missile to seriously damage the missile cruiser "Moscow", the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Alestovich, adviser to the director of the Ukrainian president's office, also told Ukrainian media that the missile cruiser "Moscow" caught fire in a bullet.
As for the Official Ukraine's statement, the Russian official has not yet responded.
The 16 Basalt heavy anti-ship missiles are the iconic weapons of the cruiser Moscow.
The flagship of the Black Sea Fleet was severely damaged
Moscow was the first ship of the Type 1164 guided-missile cruiser built during the Soviet period and entered service in 1983. Originally named "Glory", the ship was renamed "Moscow" after the collapse of the Soviet Union and became the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet.
Li Jie, a naval expert, told the surging news (www.thepaper.cn) that the "Glory" class cruiser has a full load displacement of nearly 12,000 tons, a crew of 476 people, and the main weapons are 16 "Basalt" heavy anti-ship missiles and 64 vertically launched S-300 long-range air defense missiles. The "Basalt" anti-ship missile has a range of more than 500 kilometers, can fly supersonically, and is mainly used to strike large surface warships such as aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, also known as "aircraft carrier killers".
"In addition to long-range anti-ship missiles and anti-aircraft missiles, the 'Glory' class is also equipped with naval guns, short-range anti-aircraft missiles, close-in artillery, torpedoes and other weapons, with strong comprehensive combat capabilities." Li Jie pointed out.
A total of 4 ships were built on the "Glory" class, 3 of which belonged to Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and because the power system was more reliable than the "Kirov" class cruisers, it was the most active 10,000-ton class battleship in the Russian Navy. During Russia's military involvement in the Syrian civil war, moscow became the flagship of the Russian Navy's permanent task force in the Mediterranean, operating in the waters surrounding Syria.
In this Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the "Glory" class cruiser is part of the Russian Navy's military deployment to deal with the situation. In February, the Russian Navy deployed three Glorious-class guided-missile cruisers in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
The cruiser Moscow is the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy.
According to the U.S. Naval Association News Network (USNI) reported on February 23, the Russian Navy's three "Glory" class guided missile cruisers are operating in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, the "Moscow" is deployed in the Black Sea, the "Varyag" from the Pacific Fleet is operating in the waters south of Italy, and the "Marshal Ustinov" from the Northern Fleet is cruising in the waters near the Syrian port of Tartus.
The analysis believes that the Deployment of the Russian Navy is to counter the three NATO aircraft carrier strike groups operating in the Mediterranean. A U.S. defense official said at the time that the Russian Navy's move had attracted the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense.
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the cruiser "Moscow" and other ships of the Black Sea Fleet participated in the combat mission, mainly responsible for escorting amphibious warships, sealing the sea and other tasks, because there is no special land attack missile, the ground attack task is undertaken by other ships equipped with "caliber" cruise missiles.
Sunk by Ukrainian missiles?
According to official Ukrainian information, the Ukrainian army used the "Neptune" anti-ship missile to seriously damage the cruiser "Moscow".
The Neptune missile is a subsonic anti-ship cruise missile developed by the State Design Agency of Ukraine "Luch", with a maximum range of about 280 kilometers, and was first tested in 2018. After the test, Oleksandr Turchynov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said: "Ukrainian cruise missiles have the ability to provide reliable defenses for the Black Sea and the Azov coast, and if necessary, can affect enemy ships at a distance of 300 kilometers, even in the port where their bases are located."
The Ukrainian army is equipped with the "Neptune" shore ship missile.
According to Ukrainian media reports at the time, derivative missiles launched on the ground and air to strike targets as far as Moscow were under development, but there was no news of test firing or installation since then.
"The 'Neptune' anti-ship missile developed by Ukraine adopts a shore-based launch method, each launch vehicle is equipped with 4 missile launchers, and the entire shore ship missile system also includes command vehicles, power vehicles, etc., which can be maneuvered for combat," military expert Han Dong pointed out. ”
"Although shore-based missiles cannot sail the ocean like 'brothers' such as ship-to-ship missiles and air-ship missiles, there are also some examples of warfare. In the Anglo-Armagh War, the Argentine missile launched the "Flying Fish" shore ship missiles and sank the British destroyer "Glamorgan", which was also the first result of the shore ship missile. Han Dong introduced.
In early 2021, Ukraine announced that its 65th Independent Shore Ship Missile Battalion would begin to install Neptune missiles. If the heavy blow of the "Moscow" is really the work of the Ukrainian army, it will be the second result of the Ukrainian anti-ship operation. At the end of March, the Ukrainian army used tactical ballistic missiles to attack the Russian-controlled port of Berdyansk, and the landing ship "Orsk" in the berthing caught fire and exploded, and satellite images showed that the ship was sitting on the dock.
However, in the previous propaganda of the Ukrainian army, there were also results in anti-ship operations out of thin air. According to the Global Network quoted by the United States "Conflict Zone" website reported on March 19, when Russian netizens in the Crimea Sevastopol port photographed the Russian Navy's 22160 type patrol ship head ship "Vasily Bekov" sailing, and in the Propaganda of the Ukrainian Army, the ship was sunk by Ukrainian rockets a week ago.
The Ukrainian "Neptune" anti-ship missile in the test, the Russian army is also equipped with this missile, Russia named the shore ship model "ball".
Regarding the claim that the Ukrainian military hit the cruiser "Moscow" with missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry did not make a targeted response, only introduced the current state of the ship. According to the Russian Satellite News Agency reported on the 14th, the Russian Ministry of Defense issued a statement on the fire of the cruiser "Moscow". The statement said that the source of fire on the cruiser "Moscow" had been controlled, there was no open flame and the ammunition was no longer exploding.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that the cruiser still maintained its navigational capability, and the main missiles and other equipment were not damaged. The crew of the cruiser had been evacuated to the Ships of the Black Sea Fleet in the area. Measures are currently being taken to tow the cruisers to the port. The cause of the fire is being determined. Russian presidential press secretary Peskov said that the Russian Defense Ministry has reported to Putin the relevant situation of the cruiser "Moscow".
In Li Jie's analysis, there are two possibilities for the "Moscow" to be seriously damaged: First, it is possible that it was really attacked by ukrainian anti-ship missiles, because the ship was near the Ukrainian coast, within the range of the "Neptune" missile, the specific coordinate information can be provided by NATO, and there are various types of NATO reconnaissance aircraft activities in the direction of the Black Sea every day, and the UNITED States officially also admitted to sharing intelligence with Ukraine; the second is that the fuel or ammunition explosion inside the "Moscow" occurred, resulting in heavy damage to the warship.
After the end of the Cold War, the Russian Navy and the shipbuilding industry had frequent accidents due to chaotic management and aging facilities. In October 2018, the PD-50 floating dock carried by Russia's only aircraft carrier "Kuznetsov" during the water entry operation sank, the dock crane collapsed and hit the hull, the aircraft carrier was damaged, and in December 2019, the aircraft carrier was in Murmansk for repairs, and about 500 square meters of the ship was burned, resulting in 2 deaths and 14 injuries.
"The 'Moscow' is equipped with a multi-layer air defense and anti-missile system, long-range anti-missile can be responsible for S-300 missiles, short-range anti-missiles have SA-N-4 air defense missiles, AK-630 close-in anti-aircraft guns and active/passive jamming systems, which can intercept incoming missiles many times, and theoretically have a good interception effect on subsonic anti-ship missiles," Han Dong said. ”
"But whether it is the Ukrainian Navy missile or its own reasons for the explosion, the serious damage to the 'Moscow' is a major loss for the Russian military, the ship is named after the Russian capital at the political level, and is the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, and at the military level, the ship is the core force of the Russian Navy's Black Sea deterrence NATO, and plays many combat tasks." Li Jie pointed out.
Responsible editor: Li Yiqing Photo editor: Jiang Lidong
Proofreader: Ding Xiao