USNI reports that the RFS Moskva, flagship of their Black Sea fleet, was hit by 2 Ukrainian Neptune SSMs and either crippled or sunk. Russia has denied the Ukrainian missile hits, saying it was a result of an on-board fire that detonated ammunition, but confirming the crew had abandoned ship.
This story has been updated to include a report from Russian state media Moskva has sunk. Russian Navy’s Black Sea flagship RTS Moskva (121) has sunk while being towed toward Sevastopol, Crimea, after sustaining major damage in a fire Wednesday, Russian state media said on Thursday. “During the...
news.usni.org
There seem to be multiple implications of this for naval military balance and the Ukraine war.
From a purely naval viewpoint, if the Russian navy's version of events is correct, the crew of their flagship allowed a fire to reach magazines and effectively destroy their largest warship in the Black Sea. That does nto speak well of standards of crew seamanship or damage control, or the safety and volatility of stocks of old missiles carried aboard.
If the Ukrainian version of events is correct, it means a Russian (cold war era) cruiser with multi-layered air defence cannnot stop 2 out of 4 Harpoon-sized sub-sonic sea-skimming SSMs hitting it. The lack of a phased array radar is still a serious gap in defences against Sea Skimming SSMs. If true, that means other old ships still in the Russian Navy inventory like 2 more Slavas, Sovremennys and Udaloys, are worth very little and should be scrapped.
Fro the Ukraine War Southern Front, this is significant in several respects. Although old, the Moskva carried over 100 SAMs and had a long range radar. It was a key asset in providing air defence and controlling the air space in the Black Sea. No other Russian Black Sea fleet ship carries long range SAMS. The remaining ships in their Black Sea fleet are all smaller frigates or corvettes. So the ability of Russian armed forces to achieve air superiority on the Black Sea Coast is greatly reduced. They might also find it difficult to prevent air flights over the Black Sea.
The Moskva cannot easily be replaced. It was home ported in the Black Sea, but other large Russian cruisers are not, and hence they cannot sail through the Bosphorus. Russia's Black Sea fleet has been greatly weakened, and probably permanently.
Strategically, this would seem to make an amphibious assault/beach landing from Russian ships very unlikely for the rest of the war. Without the SAM umbrella of the Moskva, the remaining small escorts and landing ships in the Black Sea fleet would not easily defend themselves against Ukrainian missiles if they came near the land. That would make the Odessa front for Ukraine now relatively safe, and the Russian troops in Transnistria quite isolated.