Come on stop with this BS!! My question since I don‘t know it, why an Ukrainian attack was unlikely is rated an inappropriate question and already some sort of political bias, and you conclude without knowing anything more, there MUST be some sort of NATO involvement?
So who‘s the one who‘s biased and following a certain propaganda only?
You must have confused me with someone else. I don't remember questioning your statements. Personally, I don't think any question regarding why Moskva sank should be considered inappropriate.
It's only by questioning and elimination that we can hope to arrive at some semblance of a picture of what may have transpired two days ago.
I would like an answer to my question, how exactly did the Ukrainians detect, identify and track the Moskva during a storm?
The TB-2 drone does not carry a radar - please correct me if I am wrong. In inclement weather with heavy rain, optical sensors will be severely degraded. I have some reservations that the TB-2 could track the Moskva in those conditions from a safe distance. If there was heavy rain at the time of the attack, I doubt the TB-2 would be able to stay out of even Osa's range and maintain track on target.
Alternatively there could have been some other aerial asset equipped with a radar. But which one?
Theoretically ,the Ukrainians could have detected and tracked the Moskva with an over the horizon terrestrial radar. However, I think it is safe to assume that the Russians have destroyed all such static radars.
Another possibility is that the Ukrainians have used DF and ESM systems to detect, triangulate and identify the Moskva and construct a somewhat rough firing solution. I don't know if they have the networked capability to triangulate ships at sea using passive sensors. Can anyone shed some light on this?
Yet another possibility is espionage: the Ukrainians somehow got hold of Moskva's patrol plans for that day and that was good enough to launch a missile from about a 100km away.
According to a Ukrainian source, this is not the first time Ukraine has attacked Moskva with anti-ship missiles. However, Moskva shot down their missiles in the previous attacks.
Source:
A simulation I ran with CMO gives credence to the position that in a normal situation Moskva is more than capable to defend itself from 2 Neptune style anti-ship missiles.
The major variable that is pointed out by the Ukrainians is the stormy weather on that day. That somehow interfered with the ships ability to defend itself.
It could be the case that the ship was particularly vulnerable to sea skimming missiles in high sea state conditions. Its primary horizon search radar was the outdated Top Steer S-band radar from the late 70s with analog electronics. It's navigation and secondary surface search radar was the X-band Palm Frond, also late 70s technology.
The missiles might have snaked around Snake Island adding additional ground clutter to the equation. The ship appears to have been about 25-30nm from the island when it was spotted ablaze by SAR radar in orbit.