happy 3rd Π½Π° Ρ ΡΠΉ day.
today marks another anniversary of the sinking of the terrorist state of russia's naval pride, the #moskva.
in the late hours of april 13 2022, at least two ukrainian neptun missiles hit the cruiser, a ship designed to provide air defence to other vessels. π§΅
how can a ship [of that size] be sunk by a threat it's been specifically designed against? details are disputed but all theories have some things in common:
intel, artifice and fortune.
_1_ intel
key is obviously to find the target. most plausibly cloud-penetrating sat imagery yielded the ship's position [1]. back then, the americans were so kind to share such info with the brave ukrainians. an unknown source recalls the defenders to not have any time to lose with the intel.
kthxbye - beautiful.
_2_ artifice
dealing damage to a target by means it can well defend itself against is not an easy task. to make anti-ship missiles hit, they have to get through long range air defense (an entire sa-10 system), SHORAD (osa launchers) and close-in defense (ciws, ak-630).
what's known is that ukr had a tb2 bayraktar drone in the vicinity. some sources say[2] it was used to 'distract' air defence from the incoming neptunes.
_3_ fortune
to this day, it's known that two neptuns hit their target. it is unlikely their warheads would've dealt enough damage that sealed the fate of the moskva.
apparently one of the ordnance hit a beefy spot, smth like an ammunition storage. else the vessel would've stayed afloat and been towed to a safe place.
but for some beautiful reason it started listing, rough seas hindered a swift rescue. it's unclear how many orcs lost their lives.
ukraine has since listed the location as an "underwater cultural heritage" inviting divers to visit the wreck site. a trolling chef's kiss to the invaders.
slava ukraini. #fckptn
sources
[1] https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2022/04/satellite-image-pinpoints-russian-cruiser-moskva-as-she-burned/
[2] https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Ukraine-war/Turkish-made-drones-likely-involved-in-Moskva-sinking
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaiVjJWOUWE
Analysis of radar satellite imagery has revealed the location of the Moskva soon after she was reportedly hit by 2 missiles. The Russian Navy cruiser was the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet and is a symbolic as well as naval loss for Russia.
ottonafo πΊπ¦