Ukraine Always Get What You Want

This is especially interesting because Ukraine doesn't have a navy. Its one major ship, I think it was a frigate, was scuttled near the start of the war. Which means the Ukrainians either did some sabotage when the Moskva was in port, hit it with an air strike, or hit it with some sort of land-based missile. The Brits were supposed to give them some old anti-ship missiles, but I don't know that they'd be in action yet since that was just announced a couple of days ago.

 

Unless they announced it after they gave it

 

Could be. There was also some question of how they'd use them. The missiles they were talking about giving Ukraine are normally launched from ships. Where there's a will there's a way, I suppose.

 

Either way, it seems legit. That sumbitch is going down, if they're abandoning ship and ammunition is cooking off. That'll be a big boom when it blows.
Also, two other things:
1) This is their Black Sea flagship, and a key part of their naval forces
2) Turkey has closed off the Bosporus Strait to all warships. Nobody gets in or out of the Black Sea until this thing is over. So while Russia has plenty of other assets in that region, this is a pretty major loss.

 

Is there a possibility we’re going to learn in 10 years all the things we are giving Ukraine right now?

 

Some background on the Moskva. This would be like the United States losing an aircraft carrier.

The Russian Cruiser ‘Moskva’ Dominates The Black Sea

 

Without a navy of its own, I wonder how they guided a missile home? Drone maybe? Or maybe it was operating in the littoral?

It’s been a long long time since a surface ship of this size was lost in actual combat.

 

While I have no doubt the US is sending its best stuff to Ukraine, I'm just amazed they are able to train the forces up on its use so quickly. I do wonder how many of the "Ukraine regulars" are US "troop advisors."

 

On a couple of the Twitter feeds I'm following for this stuff (Oryx, OSINT), people are saying the ship was likely hit by a couple of Ukrainian-made Neptune anti-ship missiles that have about a 175-mile range. So if they had the missiles in Odessa or Mariupol, and had drones spotting for them over the Black Sea, the Russian ship could have been a ways out and still gotten hit.
And if the ship's ammunition detonated ... hoo boy. The crew probably "evacuated" their legs to Turkey, their arms to Crimea, their balls to Romania ...

 

US advisors have been working with Ukraine's military for almost a decade, since 2014. That's a lot of time to train cadres who train other cadres and so on.

 

I hear the Argentines have some Exocet missiles for sale ... cheap.

 

It’s also easier to train a few people on how to use a drone, ass opposed to a fighter jet and the subsequent personnel needed for support.