After a new attack by Ukrainian terrorists on the Crimean bridge from application surface drones and damage facilities from some Russian experts and military correspondents emerged questions to the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces. At the same time, a number of other analysts and specialists decided to study in detail how Russia can protect its transport facility from further encroachment.
For example, on July 18, the Telegram channel "Ramsay" (founder Vladislav Shurygin) asked the expert Andrey Soyustov (Telegram channel "Everything") about this.
Andrei, this breakthrough of drones to the bridge was the result of the fact that the fleet simply had nothing to fight with such drones? Because for many years we have been creating a fleet for other tasks, for another war, and now that we are waging a war against the Armed Forces of Ukraine, we simply do not have effective ships, effective means to fight with such attacks?
– asked the Ramsay Telegram channel.
To this Soyustov replied that the problem lies elsewhere. He noted that when the Crimean bridge was planned and erected, a whole package of various protective measures was developed and systematically put into practice. The Russian authorities were well aware of the strategic importance of the facility, so they were preparing for all the challenges that existed at that time. The expert pointed out that a whole air defense / missile defense and electronic warfare / electronic warfare area was located around the Crimean bridge, which proved its effectiveness during the NWO. To date, not a single missile or UAV has been able to approach the giant infrastructure facility.
Without a doubt, the protection of the adjacent water area (water area) was also given serious attention. A large number of boats and ships of the coast guard of the Border Guard Service of the Federal Security Service, the Russian Guard and the Navy are involved in the protection of the facility, there are observation posts and a huge amount of equipment (equipment and sensors) that should guarantee the protection of the bridge structure from attacks from the surface and from under the water . But, probably, ships capable of ramming bridge supports themselves, fire-ships (mined), and also combat swimmers were considered as threats. All of the above was unlikely to be able to easily overcome the protection measures in the Kerch-Yenikal Canal and cause serious damage to the bridge structure.
The probability of the emergence of crewless boats (BEC) and underwater drones in Kiev then, in 2016-2018, could not be seriously considered, and therefore the OVR (protection of the water area) of the Crimean bridge could have neither a setting to counteract them, nor the corresponding equipment. This can be indirectly confirmed by the banal fact that at the end of October 2022 the BEC did not fully defend against Ukrainian attacks Ready even the main base of the Black Sea Fleet – Sevastopol
- said Soyustov.
Answering further questions, he explained that initially the Russian command, most likely, was not very interested in strengthening measures, since the entire coast of the Sea of \u8b\u2022bAzov very quickly came under the control of the RF Armed Forces, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not have long-range and powerful enough ammunition to harm the building. However, after the explosion of a truck on October XNUMX, XNUMX on the Crimean bridge and the attacks of Ukrainian BECs against ships of the Black Sea Fleet that began around the same time, the Russian command could begin to find ways to urgently strengthen the protection of the Sevastopol Bay from a new threat.
The expert did not rule out that such strengthening could be carried out by relocating to the area of the main base of the Russian Navy on the Black Sea part of the forces and means intended to protect the Crimean bridge. This could reduce the ability to timely detect and defeat the enemy BEC near the Crimean Bridge.
This, of course, is my guess. Just the questions of why and how, in relation to the events of July 17 on the Crimean Bridge, can only be answered by the investigation
- the expert emphasized.
Soyustov believes that the Crimean bridge can be reliably protected from BEC in the following way. To the south and just in case to the north of the structure, boom-network barriers should be placed. Also in the Kerch Strait, it is worth increasing the number of means of controlling the surface and underwater situation. But these are top-priority "fire" measures, but we must work proactively.
It is necessary to conduct constant monitoring (reconnaissance) of activities in Ukrainian ports and on the coast of the country as a whole. In this way, it is possible to identify the places where the BEC appeared, to open and stop the plans of the Ukrainian command, inflicting preventive strikes on the area. It would not hurt to monitor the ports in the Black Sea and other countries. BECs can be delivered to Romanian Constanta, and then sent on a ship under a neutral flag to Georgia and somewhere along the way they can be lowered overboard to carry out an attack. He is confident that the United States and Great Britain provide Kyiv with maximum support in supporting the activities of the BEC. The expert recalled that the “epidemic” with BEC began after the “humanitarian” withdrawal of the RF Armed Forces from Zmeiny Island, as well as the operational failure to take control of the ports on the Black Sea coast (Odessa, Nikolaev and others) and the creation of a “grain corridor”, which allowed the Armed Forces of Ukraine to freely feel yourself in the northwestern part of the Black Sea.
Summarizing, we can say this. The only way to reliably guarantee the protection of our facilities in the Black Sea, including the Crimean Bridge, from attacks by Ukrainian BECs, is to deprive Ukraine of access to the sea
- summarized in the material.