Romania decided to threaten Russia with its skinny biceps
Moscow
In the wake of the military frenzy unleashed by the Washington Regional Committee around the next “Russian threat,” the Western allies are doing everything to please the overseas overlord. Looking at the habits of the Biden administration, everyone is trying to the best of their ability and dirty tricks.
“Strategic partners” demonstrate loyalty mainly at the diplomatic level, expelling Russian diplomats from the country under false pretexts. Some are doing this purely nominally, “to get away,” like Italy, and others with all the passion of a striker on the anti-Russian front, like the Czech Republic, reducing to a minimum the number of Russian diplomatic missions on their territory.
About 20 years ago, when the Czech Republic and other former “brothers” were accepted into the EU and NATO, their response in the form of spitting in the direction of Russia was still somehow understandable - ardent neophyte fools, what can we take from them - they will go crazy and go away. However, no. The diligence with which the leadership of the “Young Europeans” is trying to spoil relations with our country to please and at the behest of their overseas uncle is somewhat surprising. There is no profit, only a loss, but so much effort is being made to, in response to mirror measures, portray insulted innocence and, with childish tears in the eyes of the top officials of the state, babble the sacramental: “What are we for?”
But among the allies and minions of the United States there are quite “alternatively gifted” people who try to combine diplomatic demarches with attempts to demonstrate skinny biceps. Like, Russia, don’t bother with us, otherwise...
Among the “alternatively gifted” was such a highly developed and prosperous state as Romania, a former ally of the USSR under the Warsaw Pact and Russia’s neighbor in the Black Sea region. This country decided to “counter the Russian threat” in two ways – both diplomatically and militarily.
The Romanian authorities suddenly realized that the existence of their “great power” was threatened by the Russian Black Sea Fleet, while their own coastal defenses were greatly weakened, and they were protecting the Romanian gains of the last 30 years from the threat from the sea by the morally and technically outdated Soviet 4K51 “Rubezh” anti-ship missile systems.
To dramatically increase the combat capability of the Romanian Navy, Bucharest found funds in the amount of $285 million to purchase missile systems from Norway Naval Strike Missile (NSM), capable of hitting sea and ground targets.
CRP NSM - an interesting enough solution to talk about it specifically and estimate its effectiveness against ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
It is known from open sources that NSM developed by the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace in 2007 to replace the outdated Penguin anti-ship missiles. The project received financial support from the governments of Norway and Australia, and since 2013, Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates and Skjold-class missile boats have been armed with missiles of the complex.
To reduce visibility by radars, the four-meter rocket is made of composite materials, consists of two stages - accelerating powder blocks and the rocket itself with a sustainer turbojet engine from a French company Micro turbo.
Rocket NSM winged, subsonic, flight range - from 3 to 185 km. The high-explosive combat part of the multi-variant detonation weighs 120 kg.
The most interesting is the missile guidance system, which is not very typical for modern anti-ship missiles. NSM does not have a radar homing head (RLGSN), but is oriented in flight using an inertial navigation system adjusted according to GPS. At the final stage of the flight, the target is captured by an infrared homing head (IGOS) in accordance with the signatures embedded in the on-board computer of the missile.
A similar guidance method is more typical for 3rd generation anti-tank systems of the “Javelins».
Test launches of NSM coastal complexes.
The idea of the Norwegian engineers is quite transparent. After pinpointing the target and launching the missile at the established coordinates, the flight time to the maximum range will be about 6 minutes, during which such a large target as a ship will not be able to escape from the attack. The ship is in the coverage area of the enemy's radar, and the missile corrects its trajectory with data from satellites during its flight. At the final stage, the missile flies 5 m above the sea surface and, from a distance of 15 km, captures the target of the onboard IGSN.
Advantage NSM is that it is more difficult to confuse the IGSN than the RGSN. The rocket itself is made of composite materials, and the small-sized turbojet engine installed on it does not emit much noise, which together makes the rocket inconspicuous. The absence of an active radar seeker increases the stealth and noise immunity of guidance systems.
Among other things NSM works in cooperation with aircraft, ground control points and ships of its fleet, and upon command from them opens fire in automatic mode.
If we add here the low cost of missiles NSM - it turns out that Romania acquired the “wunderwaffe” for pennies and now the Black Sea Fleet is threatened by anti-ship missiles from the Romanian coast?
In fact, everything is somewhat more complicated and interesting than it might seem at first glance.
If you look at the number of operators NSM, then before Romania there are only two users of the anti-ship “miracle weapon”. This is Norway itself and Poland, which purchased a mobile missile division in 2013 NSM and deploying it near the village of Semirowice, in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. There were no victorious reports from the Polish side after this event, from which one can understand: Poland chose the “anti-crisis option” to strengthen coastal defense.
Launch of NSM from a Norwegian corvette.
No one is choking in the queue for the Norwegian “wunderwaffles”; 8 years after the start of operation, only one operator was added, and even that one is not one of the enviable and rich.
It is noteworthy that those who previously showed interest in NSM The United States, Canada and Australia have suddenly cooled down and no longer plan to purchase these anti-ship missiles, thereby putting an end to Norway’s ambitious plans to break into the lucrative but overheated international arms market.
And if we take into account that Norway and Australia, which are funding the project, although they are developed countries, are not included in the list of legislators of rocket technology, then this circumstance, one must assume, is the reason for more than modest interest in their brainchild.
Norwegian company that developed NSM, is currently finishing it to the level Joint Strike Missile together with the American company Lockheed Martin to use missiles on the external and internal suspensions of the aircraft F-35, which should increase their range.
And if Poland submitted an application for the purchase of 32 units F-35 for $6,5 billion, then Romania is unlikely to be able to order these fighters in significant quantities. Well, that is, “miracle missiles” will threaten the Black Sea Fleet exclusively from the shore.
In addition, to already ordered missiles NSM The Romanian Navy will have to purchase a lot of additional things in containers: mobile platforms based on Oshkosh trucks, communication systems and radars, remote control equipment and other necessary equipment. But the most important thing is that NSM purchased by Romania, rather, for political reasons, since these missiles do not pose a serious threat to the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, although they are much better than the cracked Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles.
Tanks have long been able to blind IGSN and jam GPS - standard electronic warfare equipment, and a modern or modernized warship is protected from these tricks even better. Low radar signature of missiles NSM - no problem either. They can be detected in time, and the launch and acceleration of missiles using powder accelerators is equivalent to an early warning to an enemy who has the appropriate means.
The Romanians should be offended that the flight range of the missiles they purchased is 185 km NSM - this is nothing, especially if you remember that the missile systems of the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, the cruiser "Moscow" and the "calibers" on other ships are capable of hitting targets not only on the Romanian coast, but also in the depths of Turkish territory, without leaving their anchorage in Sevastopol Bay. So all of Romania’s efforts to “counter the Russian military threat in the Black Sea” by purchasing small (and one-time) batches of weapons from “senior partners” look like a pitiful show-off, far from strengthening defense capabilities.
NSM in Poland.
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