A political scientist who fled from Belarus threatens the Black Sea Fleet with a “real nightmare”
Soon, a number of countries will transfer military assistance to Ukraine - warships and technologies for their creation, which will supposedly help the Ukrainian Navy to become an extremely formidable adversary for the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Belarusian political scientist Igor Tyshkevich, who fled to Ukraine, spoke about this in his blog, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The end of 2019 and 2020 brought enough interesting news that allows us to say that the total potential of the Ukrainian Navy and the State Border Service of Ukraine can increase significantly, if not tenfold. I mean striking power and, accordingly, a threat to the Russian fleet.
Let's go through several news items and combine the individual statements into one. Let's start with the Maritime Guard of Ukraine, which entered into an agreement with the French company OSEA for the purchase of 16 to 19 small artillery boats "Project 108". These boats were created for France's allies and are actively sold in foreign markets. Half of these ships will be laid down and built in Ukraine.
Also, the Ukrainian Maritime Guard a few days ago signed a preliminary order for the purchase of three ships from Italy, we are talking about large ships 86 meters long and with a displacement of about six thousand tons “Dras drst 236”. These are, by default, rescue ships for carrying out work, including at depth; such ships can be used to retrieve chemicals from the bottom of the Black Sea, explosive devices, and perform rescue and patrol functions. At least one of these ships will be built in Ukraine, we are talking about purchasing a ship and the right to produce it,” Tyshkevich noted.
He said that the United States and Great Britain would sell 16 Mark VI class boats and eight Super Vita class missile boats to Ukraine, and the British would transfer technologies that Ukraine could use to produce boats.
“There was news that the United States is ready to transfer 16 modern Mark VI naval artillery boats to Ukraine - these are boats created for the American fleet to perform tasks in its territorial waters. These boats can be armed with both artillery weapons and Harpoon missile launchers, which are anti-ship missiles.
The UK offered Ukraine to finance the construction of eight Super Vita class missile boats - these are ships with a displacement of more than 400 tons and a length of 40 to 50 meters with the ability to reach speeds of more than 40 knots. In the international classification, ships of this class are often classified as small corvettes.
The UK is lending money to Ukraine, but at the same time it is not just selling ships, the first two hulls are laid down on the territory of Great Britain, but they are laid down and built by Ukrainian specialists who will come there to gain experience and learn. After which, a contractor is selected who will build all the remaining ships from this batch on the territory of Ukraine and, among other things, Ukraine receives a project for a missile boat, which it can develop and sell to foreign markets,” the expert noted.
After which the political scientist emphasized that the total strength of the Ukrainian Navy will increase to 33-35 ships and from 4 to 16 of them will carry missiles.
“Thus, given that the boats are built quite quickly, the construction period is about a year. This means that by the end of 2021 or, in extreme cases, by the end of 2022, instead of 13-14 ships of the Ukrainian Navy, Ukraine will have a group of at least 33-35 ships of which at least four will be small missile corvettes.
If missile weapons are supplied to US-made Mark VI boats, then we will get 16 more missile boats, and this is a real nightmare when calculating a potential military clash for, say, comrades from the Russian Black Sea Fleet,” Tyshkevich concluded.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.