What a British destroyer could do alone: An officer's story
An officer of the Russian Navy, at the request of PolitNavigator, commented assertions by Ukrainian propagandists that the British warship that staged a provocation yesterday off the coast of Crimea had the ability to independently deal with the entire Russian Black Sea Fleet.
As one might expect, everything is far from being as the Ukrainian media claim.
...In the dynamics of events with the British destroyer Defender violating the Russian border in the Black Sea, what remained behind the scenes was an assessment of the capabilities of this ship and what damage it could inflict on ships or ground infrastructure of a real enemy.
The Defender is a virtually new guided missile destroyer in the Royal Navy. It was launched in 2009 and put into operation in 2013. This is undoubtedly a modern ship, with decent artillery armament, a good anti-aircraft missile system - true, with an average range of up to 80 km, but with an ammunition load of 48 vertically launched missiles. 2 containers of anti-ship missiles "Harpoon". Also capable of carrying 2 light or 1 heavy helicopters.
The ship is good, but clearly not a shock one, because is not a Tomahawk carrier. And the history of its use, for example, in NATO operations against terrorists, boiled down to anti-aircraft cover for the alliance's naval group.
In the comments of those who read the news about yesterday's incident, the capabilities of this ship are often discussed, and the range of opinions is replete with extremes. Some consider it a very powerful military unit, capable of fighting the Black Sea Fleet single-handedly, others do not take into account its capabilities in air defense.
Of course, what happened was not real fighting. It is clear that “one man in the field is not a warrior,” and in the event of a massive strike from coastal anti-ship missile systems, missile ships and aviation of the Black Sea Fleet using electronic warfare systems, the destroyer would have held out for several minutes.
Yes, he could single-handedly inflict damage to enemy ships, limited by his capabilities, provided that he attacked first, but this would mean for the crew a "death sentence without the right to postponement." It is unlikely that the British sailors are morally prepared in such a situation in order to check the reaction of the Russians to the violation of their border in the Black Sea.
Therefore, the actions of our border service ships and, especially, the pilots of the Black Sea Fleet were exclusively precautionary. In real combat conditions, it is contraindicated to approach an enemy ship by water, air or underwater within striking distance of its weapons.
Let’s hope that yesterday’s provocation will not be repeated, otherwise all responsibility for further developments of events will fall on our potential “partners.”
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