"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again."

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Thumpalumpacus said:
Gosh, I hope this is true.

Multiple Ukrainian sources have claimed that the nation's armed forces have hit the Russian cruiser Moskva in a guided-missile attack in the Black Sea.
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Reuters has a statement (via Interfax, a Russian state owned news agency) from Russia's MoD that the Moskva had a fire at sea and suffered an "ammunition detonation" and was "seriously damaged" although all crew had been evacuated. No word on the cause of the ammunition detonation though....

Ukraine claims two hits with Neptunes on Moskva. The same day, Russia says the ship suffered an ammunition detonation. It doesn't take a genius here to draw some conclusions, even though full confirmation on what actually happened will probably remain in the realm of intelligence professionals.

Either way, a fire and ammunition explosion on a 12,500 tonne ship is bad news. If it survived, it looks like it will be out of the fight for a while.

Another expensive embarrassment for Russia.
 
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[Updated: Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti confirms an explosion aboard the Moskva resulting in "serious damage," but asserts that the cause was a shipboard fire and the detonation of ammunition, not a missile strike.]
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I like the late edit - "You didn't blow us up, we blew ourselves up!"
I don't know which is worse, admitting you got hit by an enemy missile, or admitting your equipment is so bad it's doing the enemy's job for them.
 

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vikingBerserker said:
I read something that the US turned around and pulled the Mi-17 copters from the aid package, but really did not say why.
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According to the Pentagon, they still have the green light.

Oddly enough, the only news source headline (that I've seen so far) that claims the U.S. declined the MI-17s, is Fox...

Howitzers, Helicopters, Humvees Headed to Ukraine

An additional $800 million drawdown package of security assistance is on its way to Ukraine, and the efforts to get the newly authorized equipment and supplies to the Ukrainian military will begin
www.defense.gov
 
gumbyk said:
I don't know which is worse, admitting you got hit by an enemy missile, or admitting your equipment is so bad it's doing the enemy's job for them.
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If the Admiral Kuznetsov is anything to go by, the latter is definitely the case of what happens in the Russian navy.

It does appear that the Russian government is painting the picture it wants the world and crucially its own people to see. The Russian people will come to realise the truth when the body bags start piling up at home, although there is evidence that in some cases Russian military units are leaving their war dead behind. The ordinary Russian people are not stupid and many see the war for what it is, but are powerless to speak out against it because the government has banned dissent. Conversely, Putin has a lot of support in Russia. Time will tell.
 
GrauGeist said:
Oddly enough, the inly news source headline that claims the U.S. declined the MI-17s, is Fox...
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vikingBerserker said:
I read something that the US turned around and pulled the Mi-17 copters from the aid package, but really did not say why.
Click to expand...

Well, now we know what channel Viking watches...

Sorry dude, couldn't resist! A slackarse attempt at humour at your expense!

I'll go sit in the naughty corner...
 
Any more info on the unmanned coastal defense vessels? Le Jeune Ecole meets Skynet?
 
BiffF15 said:
I'm not familiar with "hot pad".
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Hot pad was quick reaction alert status. Two birds airborne within five minutes and two more within ten if needed. Radar horizon was at best five minutes in MiG21 time. Fidel's boys weren't shy about making roostertails in the ocean, nor about probing the defenses. Willie Victor, our resident EC121 SIGINT snooper wasn't shy either, flying just outside SA2 trajectory and illuminating various targets with simulated ASM guidance radars. All cold war relics now.
Hot Pad was a monthly detachment commitment rotated between USN/USMC east coast F4 squadrons. The "hot" birds sat plugged in to start carts with open canopies and umbrellas for shade, while the crews sat nearby in a (weakly) air conditioned shack in full flight gear playing acey-ducey. When the scramble bell rang, the plane captains would energize the start manifolds and the ordies would hop in their trucks and dash down to the arming pad. Whenever Willie Victor took off, the plane captains would fire up their start carts and the flight crews would man up and sit in the shade of their umbrellas, as a scramble would often ensue. From that posture they could be wheels up in under three minutes. Occaisonally they would come home missing an item or two of ordnance.
Typical load out: two tanks, two Zuni pods, two AIM7s, and four AIM9s, though often they would skip the Sparrows. With that drag index they were solidly subsonic, and takeoffs were lengthy.
 
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A USAF detachment sat near the Air Guard hangar at the New Orleans joint reserve base, Belle Chasse. This program began shortly after a twin passenger acft flew in from Cuba to New Orleans International (MSY) long ago and was only discovered as he entered the pattern and called the tower. There was a big sugar producers convention/meeting that week in New Orleans and the Cubans, not being invited, decided to come anyway. Amongst my photos I have a shot of the bad ol' Cuban plane hidden in a hangar. As I recall, the Cubans were not allowed in the meetings, but held until the meetings were over, and then escorted on the flight back out of US airspace.
 
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Couple of open source intelligence types reporting the Moskva has stopped all transmissions. This could be because all crew has left the ship, or because its sunk to the bottom of the Black Sea.

At least one report claims to have intercepted Russian radio transmissions from rescue craft a few hours ago, stating the ship had rolled onto its port side and was still on fire.
 
My Guard unit sits alert at Homestead. We have sat down at Key West (when HST had runway repairs going on), and the alert shack was at the right end of the ramp when viewed from the Hanger offices.

We could get airborne usually in about 5 minutes. Prior to 9-11 our alert site at HST would scramble almost as much as the other 15 alert sites combined. If I sat alert, I usually got one scramble out of it. The majority were guys coming in from the Bahamas, not talking or squawking at the right place. Usually you had just about five minutes from the Horn until they got it figured out and canceled you. If one guy was rolling when the cancel came in, both went. We wanted to get airborne as it was a free sortie (no brief).
 
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