Although Washington and Ukraine confirmed the detonation of the cruiser with “Neptune” missiles, Moscow says that a fire broke out and caused the detonation of ammunition on board the warship, and the sinking occurred while trying to tow it to the nearest port.
The Moskova is the largest ship of its kind to have sunk in combat since Britain destroyed General Belgrano’s cruiser during the Falklands War in 1982.
The warship “Moskova”, which is a naval version of the long-range air defense system “S-300”, played a role in the Georgia war in 2008, and sailed in the Mediterranean during Russia’s operation in Syria in 2013, as it surrounded Ukraine during the process of annexing the peninsula Crimea in 2014.
bombing plan
Despite its age, the cruiser was the backbone of the Russian Navy among the ships built during the last days of the Soviet Union.
According to the British newspaper “The Sun”, the cruiser settled in the depths of the Black Sea after sinking it, after 40 years of service.
The newspaper quoted Ukrainian military as saying that Ukrainian forces used drones to harass the ship and keep its air defenses dispersed before launching missiles from a hidden battery near Odessa.
According to reports, at least two missiles hit the ship, causing a massive explosion, as they are believed to have detonated one of the exposed Moskva missile tubes above the deck.
The sinking of this cruiser constituted a new blow to the military campaign of Moscow, at a time when it was preparing for new attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine.
According to military reports, the cruisers are not exportable, and they belong only to the countries that manufactured them, and only America, Russia and China own them.
“Moskova” is the flagship of the “Project 1164 Atlant” class of guided missile cruisers in the Russian Navy, and entered service in 1983 under the name “Glory”, and then in 1996 under its current name.
Military expert Mahmoud Mohy says that the Russian cruiser was hit by Ukrainian-made Neptun missiles, which is a developed model of the old Soviet-made “L-35U” land-sea missile, which was developed by the Ukrainian army after Russia’s control of Crimea in 2014, then it was developed in 2019. Once again, it proved highly efficient in hitting targets up to 300 km away.
He added to “Sky News Arabia”, that the Ukrainian bombing of the Russian cruiser was carried out with a comprehensive scenario and a tight military tactic, as 3 Turkish-made “Bayraktar” drones were sent, to disrupt and distract the cruise’s monitoring devices, and to operate the self-defense system of his unit, then he was surprised. The number of 2 Neptune missiles hit him directly.
And he added, “As part of the tactic, neither the Ukrainian presidency nor the Defense Ministry was pursued so that they would not bear political responsibility, but rather the operation was announced technically through leaked video clips.”
He added that the sinking of the military cruiser will deprive Ukraine of overlooking the Black Sea again, pointing out that “this was the second option for the Russian side after the liberation of the Donbass region.”
On the impact of this on the Russian military operation, he asserts that “the sinking of the destroyer Moskava will call on the Russian side to speed up the process of controlling Odessa and depriving the Ukrainian side of the Black Sea ports, and this confirms the scenario of dividing Ukraine into eastern and western, with Western Ukraine being a landlocked country without sea beaches. “.
injury tactic
For his part, researcher in military affairs, Dr. Mina Adel, says that the “Neptune” missile is a locally manufactured Ukrainian copy of the Russian Kh-35 anti-ship missile, and it is launched from an 8×8 vehicle from the coast at targets with a range of 280 km.
He added to “Sky News Arabia” that the missile is equipped with a warhead weighing 150 kilograms out of the missile’s weight of 780 kilograms, and it is designed to deal with targets weighing 5,000 tons, such as main combat ships or military support and landing ships.
Regarding the military tactic used to hit a target such as the Russian cruiser “Moskova”, Adel said that the cruiser possesses various radars and sensors to deal with air targets and hostile ships, and also has different types of long- and medium-range air defense missiles such as “S-300” and short-ranged “S8”. ‘, next to machine guns which are a last resort against very low targets.
In order to target this cruiser, there is a complex scenario, according to researcher Adel, that begins with continuous follow-up of the target’s path through monitoring and tracking by aircraft or designated ships.
The cruiser’s radars are also misled by electronic jamming and to draw the crew’s attention to other targets appearing offensively to camouflage the main attack.
Meanwhile, a drone hovering to follow the target “electrically” to ensure the correct coordinates of the cruiser, and then transfer it to the missile as a first stage, to direct it towards the target so as not to hit another ship by mistake.
And the researcher in military affairs continues, saying: “When the missiles approach the second stage, they open their radar and apply themselves to the target and drop very low on the surface of the water to carry out the attack.”
He continued, “What helped sink the cruiser Moskova, was the Ukrainians’ exploitation of the obsolescence of the S8 low-air defense missile system, in addition to the element of surprise and the cruise crew not expecting this attack, as it was far from the coast of Odessa, and was sailing near (Snake Island) located in The Black Sea near the eastern coasts of Ukraine and Romania.
He asserts that: “When the cruiser is hit by a direct hit, the internal ammunition explodes in it, which is present in abundance from all systems, in addition to its heavy weight, which makes the rescue mission very difficult.”
“Moskova” gained fame at the beginning of the Russian attack, when a recording spread of Ukrainian soldiers guarding an island addressing the ship’s crew via a walkie-talkie to “go to hell” after he called them to surrender.
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