Wrong place, insufficient ability or arrogance?
On 15 April, Russia was forced to admit that the missile cruiser "Moskva" had sunk while being towed back to port. The Russian and Ukrainian versions differed, marine forum reported. Will this have consequences for the way naval forces operate and the risks they take? The last time a ship of comparable size to the Moskva was sunk by a hostile force was in 1982, when the Argentinian light cruiser General Belgrano was torpedoed by the Royal Navy submarine Conqueror during the ten-day Falklands War. However, this is hardly comparable, as the submarine torpedoed an obsolete former American cruiser from the 1930s.
So how did the ship fare? The construction of the "Moskva" was problematic, says Jerry Hendrix, Senior Fellow at the Sagamore Institute and retired captain. He suspects that
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There are now a number of other analyses of the sinking of the Moskva River on the Internet. I recommend these (https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2022/04/analysis-chain-of-negligence-caused-the-loss-of-the-moskva-cruiser/) as additional reading.
As there is only one "Wolna" radar, the S-300F system can only defend against an attack from one direction. As soon as the "Volna" radar fails, the ship's long-range air defence is completely paralysed. For this reason, the "Podberezowik" early warning radar and the "Fregat-M2M" fire control radar, which is optimised for the detection of low-flying targets with phased array antennas, were installed on the "Marshal Ustinov".
Judging by a number of data, drones of the "Bayraktar" type also took part in the attack on the cruiser and served as a means of carrying out a diversionary manoeuvre.
The questions that arise in my mind: To what extent was the Black Sea Fleet staff aware that Ukraine had Neptune complexes and how many? What does Russia have intelligence services and satellites for? No admiral in his right mind would send his most valuable ship into the effective range of mobile coastal missile systems.