Russian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Miragedriver said:

One of my favorite aircraft! Thanks Forbin!!

Back to bottling my Grenache

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i prefer the Tu-22M

b787 said:

i prefer the Tu-22M

...

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me too, while flying with three X-22s (almost 18 tons to carry

Large anti-submarine ship "Kerch" decided to cut into the metal.

Large anti-submarine ship "Kerch" affected by the fire, will be disposed of, according to

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, citing sources in the shipbuilding industry. This decision was made due to the inconvenience of expensive repairs and modernization of obsolete ships. It is assumed that the name "Kerch" can be assigned to one of the new ships of the Russian Navy.

"The decision about recycling BPK" Kerch "accepted. The ship will be cut over the next year, "- a spokesman said. The decision on which company can be carried out ship recycling, is still pending: "Most likely, this will be one of the defense enterprises of the Crimean peninsula, but certainly not the 13th Shipyard" - said the source.

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See:

Not too surprised about the Kerch being scrapped after the fire in November.

She is an old Kara class vessel that was launched in 1972, making her going on 43 years old. With her Silex, Goblet and Geko missiles, in terms of her main armament and sensors, she has been fairly obsolete for some time.

But she also had a good hull, a decent record, and was capable of showing the flag and other missions for all of these years. Just does not make sense to go through any kind of major overhaul to repair the fire damage she suffered two months ago.

Russian deployments thus far this year through Turkish straits

Included also is USS Cook

Date Number Name Direction Nationality
21.1.2015 156 Yamal Northbound Russia
21.1.2015 110 Alexander Shabalin Northbound Russia
21.1.2015 PM-56 PM-56 Northbound Russia
19.1.2015 Shaktar Northbound Russia
19.1.2015 KIL-158 Northbound Russia
19.1.2015 150 Saratov Northbound Russia
17.1.2015 131 Moskva Northbound Russia
14.1.2015 75 USS Donald Cook Southbound USA
13.1.2015 031 Aleksandr Otrakovski Northbound Russia
11.1.2015 PM-138 PM-138 Southbound Russia
10.1.2015 156 Yamal Southbound Russia
10.1.2015 110 Alexander Shabalin Southbound Russia
5.1.2015 150 Saratov Southbound Russia
5.1.2015 KIL-158 Southbound Russia

Last year I counted 77 Russian ship deployments through the straits

Almost all are visiting and docking at Latakia and Tartus in Syria

The tonnage level on occasions has been noted as they travel south bound the waterline is high and on the North bound passage they sit higher in the water

Some have suggested thousands of tons of armour present on some ships including MBT

Similar deployments for 2014 which was last year and how they compare

We can see this year they have been more active in deployments


02.01.2014 16 Georgiy Pobedonosets Northbound Russia
02.01.2014 156 Yamal Northbound Russia
18.01.2014 151 Azov Southbound Russia
18.01.2014 16 Georgiy Pobedonosets Southbound Russia
27.01.2014 102 Kaliningrad Southbound Russia
01.02.2014 151 Azov Northbound Russia
01.02.2014 16 Georgiy Pobedonosets Northbound Russia

asif iqbal said:

Some have suggested thousands of tons of armour present on some ships including MBT

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Asif, this is really just hearsay and speculation. To say, "some have suggested," and then get detailed in terms of thousands of tons of armor and MBTs, without any evidence to document it, is very, very weak.

We would need some pictures of that armor being offloaded in Syria and then showing up on the battlefield. But I do not believe we have seen any of that to date.

Well I am sure we can say none of us have access to satellite imagery or aerial recon but there is certain conclusions we can draw from some basic information that we do have

Since 2011 the Turkish blogger who monitors traffic on the bosphourus has posted pictures of every Russian warship vast majority are cargo transports apart from Syria where else are they going? For a excercise well no allot of them travel alone

Some visit ports in Greece but it's just a touch and go

It's like saying how do we know chinese anti piracy are catching pirates since all we see are task force deployments and no pirates in prison

Russia is not open to declaring public ly support for Assad but it's not hard to find evidence of this

To say something is not valid on basis there is not enough evidence can be applied to almost any naval deployment

On top of that warship magazine routinely posts articles on Russian movements in Mediterranean and also overwhelmy state Russian warships docking in Syria

Now I can't post snipets and photos of every single ship which passes but I am in the position to say what I Beleive is true

asif iqbal said:

...vast majority are cargo transports apart from Syria where else are they going?

Some visit ports in Greece but it's just a touch and go

Russia is not open to declaring public ly support for Assad but it's not hard to find evidence of this

To say something is not valid on basis there is not enough evidence can be applied to almost any naval deployment

...but I am in the position to say what I Beleive is true

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Conversely, we could postulate absolutely anything if we defend it by saying that just because there is no evidence does not mean it did not happen. Here on SD, we should have more evidence that just hearsay and conjecture before we got too excited or too invested in something like this.

And that was my only point...that it is conjecture. No armor was seen...just transport ships. They could be carrying food and humanitarian supplies to Russia's ally.

IMHO, if thousands of tons or armor had been coming in...we would have more than this.

Of course you are free to believe whatever you want...that was not the point, and there is no desire to keep anyone form believing such things. I was simply making the point (once more) that is it conjecture and not based on any real evidence.