Russia and Ukraine

[Anomalocaris]

The unspoken question is did Moskva have nuclear weapons onboard.

These ships were designed to fire a volley of long range nuclear tipped supersonic anti-ship missiles at American carriers at the beginning of WWIII and then turn around and get out of dodge, which accounts for its layout of all the cruise missile tubes being angled to fire forwards, while the defensive surface to air missiles are on the back, and positioned so they can’t even engage air targets dead ahead.

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it appears not to have sunk, Pentagon assessed it as heading back to port under its own power.

The Moskva is an 38 year old cruiser that appears not have been modernized since the fall of the soviet union 32 years ago, in contrast to her sister ships.   I would not be surprised if she still carried the same outfit or ammunition she had onboard when the soviet union fell.  if that is the case, things like solid rocket boosters for its surface to air missiles, and even some warheads are likely long past their safe storage period and may well blow up if attempted to be fired.

Doesn’t speak well for the Russian navy.

Boru

To be honest, that may not represent a great degradation in the routine practice of the Russian navy since the fall of the USSR.

During the thaw at the end of the Cold War, one of Moskva’s sister ships visited Norfolk naval base.   One of the odd things the Americans noticed is the door of the missile tubes are all sealed shut by encrusted paint.   Clearly the missile tube doors have not been opened since before the ship had been repainted several times.   Given the ship was 5 years old at the time, the observers estimated the missile tube doors have never been opened since the ship was new.