The legendary and invincible Ukrainian Navy has been moving from victory to victory lately. More precisely, from peremog to peremog. Inevitably changing, as it should be according to the tacit basic law of Svidomo ukrobytiya, zrada. First there was a heroic breakthrough of the line squadron through the Kerch Strait. In comparison with him, the breakthrough of the detachment from the battle cruiser "Goeben" and the light cruiser "Breslau" under the command of adm. Souchona to the Bosphorus with the subsequent "Black Sea wake-up" simply fades. The campaign of Admiral Count von Spee with his East Asian cruising squadron and the odyssey of the light cruiser Emden also fades. What did these nonentities do in comparison with the heroes in the trousers? Never mind! In addition, they died in battle, not like the brave Ukrainians. Unless the breakthrough of Admiral Zilliax with his fast battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prince Eugen across the English Channel can somehow be compared with an unprecedented breakthrough in tow at a speed of 3 knots across the entire Black Sea and a passage with battle (bottles on the deck) under the bridge, which was filmed at Mosfilm. And the solar symbol, which was on the flags of the Zilliax battleships, no doubt, is close to Svidomo, because many grandfathers fought under it. In addition, the battleships of Zilliax reached their port also in tow - this unites.
But on this, having dragged one rusty trough in tow of another, which also managed to break down on the way, and, having put it in the port on an eternal anchor (now at least there will be where to live and where to wash with volunteers in the bath), the Ukrainian Moremans under the leadership of a tanker admiral have not stopped striking sensitive blows to the hybrid aggressor. Who did not notice them, because the blows were delivered by invisible stealth boats with invisible weapons. But the Ukrainian chocolate leader, courageously not forgetting to apply himself, did not lag behind his sailors. The Naval Forces of Ukraine are just waiting for a massive strengthening of the ship's personnel.
First, it became known about the completion of the transaction to acquire from the US Coast Guard (practically for nothing, for only $ 10 million, more expensive than they were built), two border boats of the "Island" type. These "wonderful" boats with a displacement of 168 tons and 34 m in length, with a speed of up to 29 knots in the best years, are, in fact, ordinary border patrolmen armed with a 25 mm Mk38 gun mount and 2 12.7x99 mm M2 machine guns. Replaced by these "islands" (most of the series were named after the American islands) a series of smaller and outdated boats of the "Cape" type. The "Islands" were built in 1985-1992. number of 49 pieces in two basic modifications, 8-41 m long, the rest - 34. The elongated 8 boats were the first and were written off from service in 2006, the reason is cracks in the elongated hulls. They were discovered earlier, they were looking for solutions to the problem for a long time, but in the end, having estimated the financial costs, they simply spat, all the more, there were enough problems, for example, with equipment, in addition to the cases. Cracks in the buildings, they say, have begun to creep out on short "islands", so they are written off without much regret. Yes, and the replacement is ripe - boats of the Sentinel type, 360 t displacement, armed, however, also poorly - a 25-mm cannon and 4 turret 12, 7-mm machine guns. But throwing away old brooks when you can still make money on them is stupid. And the boats were included in the program of foreign military assistance, more precisely, the transfer of surplus military property - to various fleets, fleets and coast guards. Some free, and some - for a certain amount. However, more than 20 boats still serve in the Coast Guard, of which 6 are guarding the US coast for some reason already in Bahrain, acting in the interests of the Navy in their opposition to Iran, because the US Navy with boats is very bad, unlike the crowds of destroyers. And Iran, as you know, is the opposite.
So far, there are not very many of those who need used boats. The US Coast Guard handed over 2 Island class boats to the Georgian Coast Guard in September 2016 and 2 more to the Pakistani Maritime Safety Agency in December 2016. to be with the customer. Moreover, the Georgians, who were the first to formally receive the boats (by the way, were named after the ships sunk by Russia in the five-day war), have not yet seen them. "Repair and training of crews" continues now and will end only next year, if not postponed again. Apparently, the Georgians were given quite decent travel allowances, and they do not want to leave the United States, they can continue to portray "stupid Avas" from the sideshow in the classroom. It's hard to say how long the epic with a pair of Ukrainian superdreadnoughts will last, but according to the plan, this is the end of 2019.
The boats will most likely be transferred without weapons and with a minimum of electronic equipment. So local Ukrainian budget cutting specialists will be able to participate in equipping boats with some semi-working products of local production. Again, an excuse for peremogi. After all, by the Americans themselves (!) We are equipping what we have built with our own weapons. In general, there is no sense in these shells of the Naval Forces of Ukraine, it is impossible to fight on these boats even with the PSKR of the Coast Guard of the FSB Border Service. Any "Firefly" of some sort will tear this boat apart with 76-mm or 30-mm shells and will not notice. Well, two more troughs will be in the sea. Some time. Until they break, or the cracks kill the case completely. Although you can always paint over the cracks with a thick layer of paint and some kind of putty - it is enough for show, if it disperses on a wave, then it will not be the first time to reach the shore on the drain pumps. If they work.
Following it became known about the possible transfer to Ukraine of three decommissioned Danish modular boats of the "Standard Flex 300" type, in the version of minesweepers. Decommissioned from the Danish fleet in 2010-2012, they were offered for an amount of $ 104 million. Ukraine, of course, does not have this money, and, despite the need for minesweepers, the deal will probably not take place. For free or for a penny, as Kiev would like, the Danes are not ready to give the boats, albeit not justified, but a project that would be quite suitable for the Ukrainian Navy.
Well, the most powerful blow with language on the dominance of the Red Banner Black Sea Fleet was struck the other day, when it became known that the United States intended to feed its Ukrainian non-slaves with a shovel another weapon of the Peremogi - two frigates of the Oliver Hazard Perry class. Among Ukrainian bloggers or journalists from different "Observers" and "Dialogues", of course, trousers are full of joy, just like with the "saints" ATGM "Javelin", about which a simple Svidomo knows nothing real (about the problems and shortcomings of this weapon, for example) and does not want to know. But what happened to the Javelins? They delivered a small amount - and they stored it at Yavorovo, with American instructors under the supervision of … and a lock. They give out for the parade, sometimes shoot. And nothing else - they are not allowed to go to the front. So here too, hopes for a change in the balance of the sea are in vain. But for other reasons. The Javelin, for all its minuses, has its pluses, and is a perfectly applicable anti-tank weapon, which, of course, will not seriously affect anything (if the silhouettes of the northerners did not appear behind the backs of the republican corps, maybe everything would be different). But a frigate like "Perry" or two frigates are the same useless "white elephants" for the Naval Forces of Ukraine, like "Getman Sagaidachny" nicknamed "Saiga Dachny".
These URO frigates were built in a huge series of 71 ships, of which 52 were for the US Navy, 6 frigates were built for the Australian and Spanish fleets (the Australians built 2 of them at their shipyards, and the Spaniards built everything for themselves), 8 built on Taiwanese shipyards. At the moment, all American frigates are either transferred to foreign states (8 went to the Turks, 4 to the Egyptians, 1 to Bahrain, 6 to Pakistan, 2 to Poland), or sunk as targets, or dismantled, or offered as part of military assistance. Thailand is listed as a potential client, but the couple destined for it has already been destroyed - one ship was drowned in a training exercise, the other was removed from the list for transfer and sent for recycling (it was probably in poor condition). A similar story is with the Mexican couple - one of the frigates fell victim to the RIMPAC exercise this year, and the second is still intact. Now two unnamed frigates are being offered to Ukraine. Moreover, it seems, not free, but at a more reasonable price than Danish minesweepers.
The 4,200-ton frigates were once the backbone of the escort force, the workhorses of the late Cold War. There were victims among "Perry". Thus, the frigate "Stark" was attacked by an Iraqi plane in 1987. in the Persian Gulf, successfully "slept through" the air attack, received 2 Exocet AM-39 anti-ship missiles in the side. According to the long tradition of "exosets", only one of the missiles exploded (the fuses, they say, are still not very reliable on various clones and developments of this missile produced by the Chinese and Iranians), the second only caused a fire from the spilled fuel. But one rocket was enough to kill 37 sailors and receive great damage, which, without a doubt, could become fatal, were it not the greenhouse conditions of the Gulf, with a nearby base and their ships nearby, capable of towing a frigate. The aluminum superstructure of the ship also served to spread the fire (the Perry was designed before the Falklands / Malvinas War, which showed the danger of the extensive use of aluminum on ships). A year later, another frigate, "Samuel Roberts", was blown up in the Persian Gulf by an Iranian-made anchor mine that looked very similar to our 1908 Russian mine. The resulting extensive hole 5 m in diameter led to the flooding of the engine room. Also, two gas turbine units were blown off the foundations by an explosion, and the keel was even partially broken. It is strange that part of the stern did not break off at all. True, there were no victims. In general, in this case, greenhouse conditions in the Gulf saved the ship from drowning. Both frigates were eventually rebuilt, perhaps on principle. In general, "Perry" proved to be quite reliable and sturdy, despite a number of shortcomings.
These frigates were armed as follows: 1x1 PU Mk.13 SAM "Tartar" with SAM "Standard" SM-1MR (range up to 50-75 km, target channel - 1), with 40 missiles ammunition. Moreover, the "Standards" could be used as an ersatz anti-ship missile system, but also the Mk.13 could be used to launch the Harpoon anti-ship missile system. In addition to the air defense missile system, there were 2 anti-submarine helicopters, 1x1 76mm AU OTO Melara Rapid, 20-mm ZAK Vulcan-Falanx, 2x3 torpedo tubes of 324 mm caliber for anti-submarine torpedoes Mk.32.
However, due to the decommissioning of the Standard SM-1MR SAM and the high cost of converting the ship for other SAMs, the SAMs were dismantled, due to which the Perry lost both anti-aircraft and anti-ship capabilities at once. With one ZAK "Falanx" and a 76-mm artillery mount against aviation and anti-ship missiles, you can't do anything at all, especially against supersonic anti-ship missiles. An attempt to fight a large ship of the Russian fleet will resemble the ever-memorable characters who came to a shootout with knives, because an anti-ship missile will simply fly in in response. It is possible to fight with the frontier TFR, but with caution - the 76-mm AK-176 on our ships is longer-range and more rapid-fire. A meeting with a ship armed with at least a 100-mm artillery system, like small artillery ships of the Buyan type, is completely contraindicated - they will drown from a convenient distance. The anti-submarine capabilities of ships in our time are also clearly insufficient (this is if someone gives the Ukrainians helicopters and torpedoes at all), although they are available, but given who will own the ship and how they are "able" to master it, this equipment is unlikely to be able to work as it should be.
Of course, it is possible, say, instead of the cut-out air defense system, to embed a vertical Mk.41 launcher for 8 missiles under the ESSM (Evolved Sea-Sparrow Missile) missiles, as the Turks and Australians did for the modernization, but this is unlikely to have money. It is possible to stick the anti-ship missile system separately somewhere, but they will certainly try to put their seriously mutilated clone of our X-35 Uranium anti-ship missile system - the Neptune anti-ship missile system. But, in fact, there is no anti-ship missile system yet. There were 2 throw launches of mock-ups of missiles, which externally differ from each other, there were no GOS on them, because they are not yet available. There is no control system and much more. Basically, there are only promises. And a rocket growing in size. It is not known when something will grow together into a real working product, but obviously not soon. They promise, of course, just about, but miracles do not happen. The creation of a new anti-ship missile system, even by cloning according to the available documentation and with the developed development and production of such weapons, is not a quick process. And if all this is not there, then even more so.
But the operation of such ships will eat up all the funds of the Navy, as well as the purchase of spare parts and funds for repairs. Moreover, all this will have to be purchased in the United States, for which such "charity" is being carried out. That is, Ukraine quickly learns the truth of the saying that it is easiest to ruin a weak country by giving it a battleship. Or a decommissioned frigate. Moreover, in the continuation of the tragicomedy on the Sea of Azov, these ships will not help Ukraine - it is dangerous to go there on them, and there is no point.
But with such ships, you can increase the level of oversight in speeches and reports, you can appoint at least one more admiral, or even several, and go to them for exercises with "allies", as the head of the world's first self-proclaimed member of the alliance calls NATO. And work on the modernization of ships can and should be entrusted to a shipyard owned by one lover to walk in crumpled chewed suits not in size and with a flask in his pocket. And it is not so important that there is simply nowhere to base these two frigates, and you will have to build infrastructure - you can hardly build it, but simply announce the construction, mastering the money.
Therefore, a couple of more than thirty-year-old "Oliver Perries" are likely to join the ranks of the Navy, the only question is how and when and on what conditions. But Russian sailors are neither cold nor hot from the appearance of these old men - they are not opponents in their current state. But for the Navy, these ships may not become a lifeline, but a cast-iron yoke, pulling their budget to the bottom. But does anyone think about this?
