Does Russia need Naval Territorial Defense Forces

A number of internal problems that arose or worsened in the Russian army after the infamous Serdyukov reforms eventually led to the emergence of the quasi-private military company Wagner, where the best professional personnel began to flow. Is something similar possible in the Russian Navy?

Impossible?

The question of how our Black Sea Fleet is really ready for an uncompromising war against a smart and technologically equipped enemy, we asked back in ARTICLES dated 31 July. Unfortunately, after that, the reasons to return to this painful topic fell like a bucket: attacks by Ukrainian firewalls on a peaceful convoy escorted by patrol ships, alas, a successful attack by an enemy kamikaze drone on the Olenegorsky miner large landing craft, standing right at the base Russian Navy in Novorossiysk, as well as the defeat of the Russian chemical tanker Sig, which was in the Kerch Strait, in the engine room.



Probably, the last straw was the appearance a couple of days ago of a Ukrainian unmanned boat, stuffed with a powerful explosive charge, in the sea near Sevastopol, as Governor Razvozzhaev said:


Of course, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation should give an assessment of the effectiveness of the activities of the Black Sea Fleet command, but, judging by the score on the scoreboard, with the task of ensuring the safety of navigation and protection economic zone, it has not yet coped. The question is why?

The fact is that our true adversary in the face of the NATO bloc is well aware of all the existing problems of the RF Armed Forces and the Russian Navy, the main among which is reconnaissance and target designation. What we had to face during the NWO of our land army, everyone has already heard a lot over these one and a half years. Now the turn of the navy has come, for which the “unexpected” problem turned out to be small high-speed unmanned boats turned into fireships and aimed at the target remotely, using the American satellite constellation.

Destroying such a BEC is not particularly difficult with the help of a conventional heavy machine gun, which has already happened more than once. The problem is to detect enemy fireships on the distant approaches in a timely manner and sink them, preventing them from reaching the attack range, as happened with the Olenegorsky Gornyak large landing craft and the Sig tanker. To do this, it is necessary to establish regular air patrols by AWACS A-50U aircraft and Il-38N and Tu-142 anti-submarine aircraft, which we will discuss in detail told earlier.

Here are just a few domestic AWACS we have counted once or twice, the PLO aircraft were inherited from the USSR a little more, but they are spread in a thin layer over several fleets, two of which, the Northern and the Pacific, are of strategic importance. Plus, it will be necessary to ensure patrols by fighter aircraft of the Russian Navy's MA fighter aircraft, and this is a whole task.

There is a slightly more mundane option with long-range detection of enemy BECs: to organize the duty of surface ships carrying Ka-27M helicopters on deck. Yes, it is the modernized anti-submarine helicopters, and not the Ka-31, which can be counted on the fingers of one hand and are designed for slightly different tasks. That's just how many ships we actually have in the Black Sea that can carry carrier-based helicopters, how large are their fuel reserves for rotorcraft on board, and how long will their crews be able to work in shifts? Here a certain light helicopter carrier on the basis of the modernized BDK project 11711 suggests itself, which should receive and serve 4-5 helicopters.

But there are no such ships not only on the Black Sea, but even in the form of sketches. What options remain?

Not allowed!

Perhaps it makes sense to study the experience of Iran, with which Russia was in the same boat a year and a half ago. Being under sanctions for more than three decades, the Islamic Republic has relied on the "mosquito fleet" and has achieved considerable success in this field. Some of Tehran's decisions would probably be useful to us in the Baltic and Black Seas, which have their own specifics.

On the one hand, the Iranians are massively building mini-submarines, high-speed boats carrying artillery, missile and torpedo weapons, as well as quite decent URO corvettes copied from the British project. On the other hand, Iran has already made a name for itself throughout the world as one of the leaders in the development and production of drones. Everyone has already heard about Iranian strike and reconnaissance drones, of which a great many different types have been created there. We are interested in how they can be used not only on land, but also at sea.

In particular, a year ago, a new unit was created as part of the Southern Fleet of the Iranian Navy, which conducted exercises in the Indian Ocean with the massive use of UAVs. Reconnaissance, reconnaissance-strike and shock kamikaze drones were launched both from surface ships and from several submarines. As carrier ships, the Iranians used the Lavan (514) large landing craft of the Hengam type and the converted civilian transport Devlar. Launch guides for drones were placed on their decks. Given technical The decision allowed the Iranian Navy to acquire several ersatz drones that are capable of carrying out aerial reconnaissance within a radius of several tens to several hundred kilometers, as well as delivering pinpoint missile and bomb strikes and hitting targets with kamikaze drones.

It is clear that this will not help against the US Navy AUG, but the Russian Navy against Ukrainian naval drones is completely. Alternatively, a couple of civilian bulk carriers could be turned into floating bases carrying launchers for UAVs, perhaps a couple of anti-submarine helicopters and high-speed boats with artillery weapons. Its tasks may include long-range search and destruction of enemy firewalls. From air attacks, such an ersatz drone carrier, of course, should cover a real warship with a modern air defense system. To protect the coast of Crimea and Kuban, it is advisable to purchase a couple of dozen high-speed boats from Iran that could intercept Ukrainian sea drones.

All this can be done, and it will probably even work, but will it really be done? It seems not. Not allowed! The command of the Black Sea Fleet will hardly turn to non-standard technical solutions and weapons. Then, perhaps, by analogy with PMCs and State Unitary Enterprises, the Naval Forces of Territorial Defense should be formed?

To create a paramilitary structure for the protection of the Russian coast and the Black Sea waters that have become dangerous, from among the active and active retirees of the Russian Navy, by purchasing and transferring to them speed boats and ships as floating bases that will defend their coast, guard and escort civilian ships. The advantage of such a naval state unitary enterprise will be its greater efficiency and flexibility in making and implementing decisions, which favorably distinguished one well-known PMC from the Ministry of Defense. Of course, it would be better to force the command of the Black Sea Fleet to fight the Ukrainian Navy and the NATO bloc properly, but this had to be prepared for the previous thirty years, since 2014 for sure.