not sure if he changed his tune lately like a bandwagon sports fan but Posobiec was definitely rooting for Russia in the first days of the War and spinning that Ukraine was more pro Russia than it actually is
I’d like to think that this is Ukrainian propaganda but based on Russian tactics so far it is likely true. Would like to see it verified by American intelligence.
so if their flagship sunk and it’s a mass casualty event it’s probs fair to say the admiral of the entire fleet was onboard yes?
Losing a Slava is a big freaking deal; as others have mentioned, it’s the centerpiece of naval air defense in the area (the Grigorovich’s and Krivaks have some as well but not as good), it’s the flagship, so likely a huge morale blow, and it’s essentially irreplaceable. The Russian Navy, for a variety of reasons, hasn’t been able to build anything larger than a frigate in decades and have been struggling to make production targets on those (ironically largely due to the 2014 Ukraine invasion), so losing a cruiser is an enormous loss.
Considering the Ukraine is the worlds third largest supplier of corn, ethanol and petrochemicals obviously impacted in stream, this is bound to get way worse than it will ever get better. Working with our global procurement officer around the feedstocks we use is one of the most depressing things I get to do each week.
The index’s are crazy. I’m not going to pretend I know much or it all but I just know we get crushed by cost roll month to month with multi million dollar surprises.
I understand all the words you typed. However, the order in which you typed them has left me baffled.
it was built 40+ years ago I think, thr cost of out more modern cruisers are generally over a billion i believe, and seems like Russia would struggle to accomplish it even with the resources to do it which may be lacking for a time given how much else they’re going to have to replace
All of their bigger ships are Soviet-era relics, but since they can’t build new capital ships they’ve been updating the old ones with new systems (which is arguably harder/more expensive since you basically have to take the ship apart and put it back together). They have a lot more guided missile ships than you’d expect but that’s, again, Soviet style “stick a few missiles on everything” doctrine (most of their patrol ships are “guided missile” boats because they cram 4-6 anti-ship missiles on the side). Their new stuff is theoretically pretty advanced but they’re much smaller than US or Chinese ships in the same role (US goes for Cruisers and Destroyers, Chinese for destroyers and frigates, Russia is topping out at Frigates and Corvettes with new build) so even if they cram it with VLS cells, it can’t really match the throw weight of a larger class and can take MUCH less damage, which makes the loss of one of their cruisers even worse.
Their roles differ a bit based on who's using them and the era but today: Cruisers are the closest you come to a "battleship" today (the biggest of which is the Kirov-Class "battle cruiser" of the Russian Navy) and are generally multi-role (can handle a combo of anti-air/anti-surface/anti-sub warfare) and if there's not a carrier around they can be flag ships for a fleet. Destroyers are a bit smaller (leaving aside the cluster fuck the DDG-1000 program is with the USN), depending on the navy can be a flag ship for a task force, and generally are more specialized than cruisers; the Russian navy for example has destroyers that specialize in anti-sub warfare or anti-air roles. Frigates in the modern sense fill a similar role to destroyers but they're smaller and cheaper. Corvettes are small frigates (the corvette vs frigate line is VERY blurry and the NATO designation is FFL or Light Frigate) Below that you get into a hazy hodge podge of patrol ships, patrol boats, mine sweepers, etc. If anyone here is a navy vet and can clarify more go for it, but that's my take based primarily on the Russian navy
can’t tell if this is sarcasm- but it would’ve been good to know that you’re most powerful ally didn’t suck if you were them
Speaking of China, I'd have to think that Taiwan probably has some major subterranean infrastructure a la Finland.
With the Neptune missile system does it have the accuracy to purposefully hit the exposed ammo points on those launchers, are the impacts just large enough that the odds are in its favor or did the Ukrainians just get hella lucky?
Their natural geography makes an invasion almost impossible unless the invader is willing to accept world war levels loss of life
Differ to Missile Daddy on that; it's got a 300lb warhead but the air defense guys on the Slava must have been asleep at the switch; the thing has 6 CWIS anti-missile systems on there.
Kinda depends if you consider a conservative corporate oligarchy "fascist" but that's another thread.