Turkey seizes Syrian ship, announces arms embargo

Jerusalem Post ^ | 9/24/2011 | Unattributed

[PIF]

As I said before, the Russians can use their (Atlantic Northwest) Northern Fleet to carry arms to Syria, making the point mute.

Any Turkish defenses, which hold up the Russians from using the Straits against Turkish wishes, would be pieces and parts long before the Russian ships actually enter the Straits.

There are currently over 40 ships-of-the-line in the Black Sea fleet, all of which are fully operational.

Capital ships include: Six from the 30th Surface Warships Division, four from the 68th Warships Brigade, four from the 41th Rocket Boat Brigade, five from the 295th Sulinsky Rocket Boat Battalion, nine from the 184th Brigade.

The Moskva alone could decimate any Turkish resistance.

Against the above: the Turkish Navy has (very old obsolete hand-me-downs) 19 frigates, 14 submarines, 7 corvettes and 108 fast attack craft (rubber/plastic runabouts). The eighth largest navy vs the second largest (and only slightly smaller the the current US Navy) = no contest.

Some Russian ships may be old and rusty, but their weapons work just peachy.

Besides which, the Russians are a huge building naval base in Lebanon (a Syrian client state), so how are the Turks going to tell which ships are carrying arms to be off loaded and which are not? Which arms are bound for Syrian forces and which are for port defense? The S300/400 systems already cover all of the Eastern Med, including Turkey

As for going south, I think you over estimate the Turks and under estimate the Russians. When it comes to Turk mil vs Russian mil, the Russians are for all practical purposes invincible.

The Turks would have a hard time stopping the Israelis if they wanted to enter the Straits, let alone the Russians.

Cheers

Det 4; Sinope, Turkey; 67-68 - where we made Russian space/mil business ours.

[rmlew]

Against the above: the Turkish Navy has (very old obsolete hand-me-downs) 19 frigates, 14 submarines, 7 corvettes and 108 fast attack craft (rubber/plastic runabouts). The eighth largest navy vs the second largest (and only slightly smaller the the current US Navy) = no contest.
The 14 submarines (Type 1200 and 1400) are hardly obsolete hand me downs. The 8 Meko 200 (Barbaros and Yavuz) are not obsolete either. It's brand new Ada corvette is a stealthy ship. And the 27 FAC missle boats are not a joke. And whereas we crippled our Perry Frigates, Turkey upgraded the G Class to carry 32 ESSMs in 8 VLS tubes.