Western military experts on Twitter reconstructed the Ukrainian attack on the Moskva cruiser. As they themselves write, if their reconstruction is correct, then it will go down in history as one of the most daring successful operations in naval history. And on my own behalf, I’ll add that this operation delights in how intelligence, accurate calculation and attention to detail can defeat brute force, no matter how powerful it may be.
The Moskva missile cruiser is a cover ship for surface and / or coastal land groups. It has anti-ship cruise missiles with a range of up to 1000 km, which can hit both surface ships and dangerous land targets. It has anti-submarine systems (obviously irrelevant for the Black Sea). And most importantly, it has a very powerful air defense system capable of hitting air targets and missiles within a radius of up to 150 km.
Accordingly, in order to destroy the cruiser, it was necessary to figure out how to overcome its air defense system, with which it covers not only other ships and / or ground groups, but also itself.
The air defense system of the cruiser “Moskva” is three-level. The most long-range is the S-300 “Fort”. It can hit targets at ranges up to 150 km and at altitudes up to 27 km. The second echelon of defense is analogs of the Osa land-based anti-aircraft missile system with SA-8 missiles, which hit targets at a distance of up to 10 km and at an altitude of up to 5 km. And the third echelon of defense is automatic six-barreled 30-millimeter cannons, which shoot from a short distance air targets and missiles that have broken through the first two echelons.
But in order to shoot down a target, you first need to detect it, and then accompany it by pointing missiles at it. To do this, the missile cruiser “Moskva” was equipped with two radar systems: “Volna” (photo No. 1) and “Voskhod” (photo No. 2). And here the Ukrainian developers of the operation found vulnerabilities, the use of which allowed the missiles to successfully overcome the cruiser’s air defense system and sink it to the bottom.
The Volna early warning system is the main system of the deceased cruiser. She is engaged in guidance of S-300 missiles. She has good resolution, she sees far, but at the same time she has one drawback: her viewing angle is 180º. This means that in order for it not to detect incoming missiles, it must carefully “look” in the other direction. Therefore, the “Bayraktar” drone flew “in the other direction”. It flew at such an altitude and at such a distance from the cruiser that it could not be shot down by the systems of the second and third echelons of the Moscow air defense system, and it could only be “reached” by S-300 missiles. And since these missiles are controlled by Volna, it was guaranteed to be occupied by Bayraktar and did not look in other directions. Probably, 2 Bayraktars were involved in the operation, so that if one of them was shot down, the second could continue to distract the Volna.
The Voskhod radar system has a 360º view, but it is older and its resolution is worse than that of the Volna. That is why the attack was carried out in stormy weather (the storm reached 7 points, and the wave height was more than 2 meters). Because of such waves, Voskhod could not “see” the rockets that merged with the tops of the waves.
Stormy weather also made it possible to hide the advance of the anti-ship complex into position. If the advance of the complex had been spotted by the Russians, then the Moskva crew would have been on the alert and the operation could have failed. Although, on the other hand, it was, of course, harder for Bayraktarams to fly in storm conditions.
There really was a storm that night, 7 points, but the next day, when they tried to drag the Moscow, it subsided to 1.5 points
I will also add that, judging by the publication of Censor.Net, the attack on the Moskva was not the first combat use of the Neptune anti-ship missile system. Prior to this attack, the Neptune fired at the Admiral Essen frigate near Odessa. At the last moment, the frigate managed to notice the rocket and damage it with cannon fire, so it exploded a little before reaching the ship and damaging it not as much as we would like. Apparently, the necessary conclusions were drawn from this attack, and the operation to destroy “Moscow” was thought out so that “Moscow” would no longer have a chance.
Arthur Welf