Updated: Russia-Ukraine Flash Report for 4-13-22 17:15 PDT: Black Sea Fleet Flagship Incident
Added 2022-04-14 00:18:47 +0000 UTCUPDATE: The Moskva rolled on its side and sank on April 14, 2022, at approximately 02:50 local time. There is no information on the number of casualties or crew members lost.
About five hours ago, open source intelligence started reporting a major increase in coded radio traffic among the Black Sea Fleet. Roughly 30 minutes later, Head of the Odesa Regional Defense and Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych, reported that Ukraine has attacked the Moskva with land-to-sea Neptune antiship missiles, scoring two hits on the Moskva, setting it ablaze.
About an hour ago, The Russian Ministry of Defense reported there had been an accident on the Moskva, causing ammunition to explode. The ship has a crew of 510 and was forced to abandon the ship due to the damage and fire.
The same person in Open Source Intelligence, that initially reported the Moskva was attacked, reported 15 minutes ago that all radio traffic and signals from the Moskva had stopped and the ship was silent for the last 12 minutes.
It is highly likely the Moskva has sunk - representing the first time in naval history that a command has lost a flagship against a combatant with no operational navy.
Russia only has one aircraft carrier in drydock, two heavy cruisers with one in drydock, two operational missile cruisers (three total, the Moskva is not operational sunk or not), and six operational destroyers - the entire fleet.
The loss of the Moskva represents a 25% loss of all operational cruisers in the Russian navy.
Comments
Just read that this was a Ukrainian-made missile they developed in-house in 2004. Very impressive.
2022-04-15 00:17:57 +0000 UTCYeh but that was 30 years ago. Imagine what they have now. When I left it was just getting good. Maybe the CNO will think how cheap it is to throw one ton shells day in and day out vs Tomahawks. I know at least 2 of the Iowas could be back inside a year and for capital ships they be a bargain. Sit out 10 miles, plenty of time to find and destroy incoming. New smart shells fly to the point of destruction. They sure can’t afford the rail guns. All kidding but for sure, no more inshore stuff
Chris Rasmussen
2022-04-14 03:29:03 +0000 UTC
