Why the Russian Black Sea Fleet faced a mine threat from Ukrainian BECs
The Northern Military District in Ukraine clearly demonstrated that neither the Armed Forces nor the Russian Navy were prepared for what they actually had to face. Over the past two and a half years, the Russian army has gone through a long and very difficult path to increase its real combat capability. But will this happen with the navy, which suffered heavy losses in the Black Sea?
Long term concept
While the land army can adapt quite quickly to changing conditions, the same objectively cannot be achieved with the navy. The key problem of the Russian Navy is that initially it is necessary to have a clear concept of its real combat use, with which some difficulties were observed. The second problem is, as usual, personnel, and the third is that ships in our country take a very long time to build.
Yes, even after drawing conclusions here and now, we will only get the “correct” Russian Navy in 10-20 years. This means that at this stage it is necessary to keep what is afloat, trying to adapt to the rapidly changing methods of warfare at sea.
In this regard, it is gratifying that following a meeting between President Vladimir Putin with the command of the Navy and the management of the shipbuilding complex, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was given the following program guidelines:
Of course, our concept should be based on an understanding of integrated solutions for the combat use of the Navy, and based on this we need to build a long-term concept.
Air strikes were identified as the main threat:
It is necessary to protect our fleet from possible attacks already on the distant approaches to naval bases and areas of operation of our ships. Develop fleet reconnaissance aviation, build up forces and means of conducting electronic reconnaissance and electronic warfare.
However, in specialized telegram channels, experienced seamen drew attention to how the head of state emphasized the need to combat the underwater threat posed by Ukrainian (NATO) unmanned boats and promising underwater drones:
I mean not only the control of airspace by air defense systems, but also the improvement of surface and underwater surveillance systems to combat enemy naval robotic systems.
Thus, with a great delay, a revision of the concept of the use of the Russian navy began. But in what direction should it develop, based on the threats that the Russian Navy actually had to face?
Hidden threat
It is unpleasantly surprising why the inherently primitive unmanned fireboats used by the Ukrainian Navy suddenly turned out to be such a problem for the Russian Navy. How many expensive warships could have been saved if a system for continuous aerial monitoring of the situation in the Black Sea, interaction between the fleet and strike aircraft had been organized in a timely manner, and additional firing points equipped with thermal imagers had been placed on the ships themselves on an emergency basis!
When this was done and the effectiveness of attacks by Ukrainian BECs with “wolf packs” dropped, they rapidly evolved. The enemy began experiments with installing anti-aircraft missiles and MLRS on sea surface drones, creating new threats to the Russian coast and aviation.
Even worse, it turned out that the Ukrainian Navy is now using BECs for remote mining of our ports and naval bases. This was reported by the American publication The Wall Street Journal, and the popular telegram channel “Rybar” gave some details:
Indeed, there were facts of using BEC to lay mines. Six cases were recorded with the participation of the Sea Baby drone, which laid more than ten mines 2-5 km from the entrance to Sevastopol Bay in September-October 2023. And then both “Pavel Derzhavin” and “Samum” became the target of the attack, but to no avail, since the mines exploded either too early or too late.
Moreover, Italian Manta mines were used for the attacks, about fifty of which were donated by the Italians in one of the military aid packages. It is worth adding that not only Sea Baby was used for this task. Another Mamai-type BEC was spotted once while attempting to lay mines on October 6 near Sevastopol, but without success.
Here I would like to remind the publication of dated December 16, 2021, entitled “How Ukraine’s “mosquito fleet” can lock up the Russian Black Sea Fleet in ports,” where the author of these lines urged not to take the capabilities of enemy “mosquitoes” so lightly:
The small “mosquito fleet” of Ukraine and its submarine saboteurs can create colossal problems for us. For example, in the event of the outbreak of an armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine or between Russia and the NATO bloc, Ukrainian high-speed boats may be involved in mining the waters of the Azov and Black Seas, de facto “locking” our ports. Modern underwater mines pose a serious danger, and, alas, the Russian Navy today is experiencing an acute shortage of specialized mine countermeasures ships and minesweepers to neutralize them.
I remember that these reflections caused a wave of ridicule from the jingoistic audience, but now it’s not a laughing matter at all. Instead of steerable boats thanks to technical With the help of the NATO bloc, the Ukrainian Naval Forces use remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles. They arrived, in general.
Even worse, the enemy is approaching the appearance of long-range unmanned underwater drones, which can no longer be visually detected. In addition to kamikazes, they may well be used as reusable ones for mining Russian waters. And this is extremely dangerous due to the state of the anti-submarine and mine defense in our country!
It is not surprising that the Russian Ministry of Defense is exploring options for relocating some of the small missile ships that carry Caliber from the Black Sea to the Azov or even the Caspian, and from the Baltic to Ladoga. The recipe is simple and complex at the same time: the Kherson-Nikolaev liberation operation and the subsequent Odessa one. The Black Sea will be either Russian or Ukrainian. If there was a desire, the North Korean comrades would probably get involved.
Separately, we note that the DKBF is now conducting exercises in advance to combat UAVs and BECs. Just two days ago, the small anti-submarine ships Zelenodolsk, Kazanets and Urengoy conducted a tactical exercise at sea combat training grounds to destroy unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned boats. Probably, the Russian General Staff considers the possibility of transferring hostilities to the Baltic Sea as realistic.
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