Posted on 05/12/2018 7:42:27 PM PDT by Mariner
USS Harry S. Truman has been pursued around the Med by a group of Russian frigates led by warship Yaroslav Mudry.
Video of the incident shows a Russian vessel in the distance shadowing the carrier and its destroyer escort.
Footage was shared by ITV as a team of news reporters visited the US warship.
The vessel is the US’s main weapon against ISIS as it launches strikes on their positions in Syria.
War tensions have flared however after the US, France and Britain launched airstrikes against Vladimir Putin’s pal Bashar al-Assad.
USS Harry S. Truman – the 116,000-ton vessel – is the flagship of the US Navy’s mighty Carrier Strike Group 8.
The warship set sail from the US last month along with a destroyer squadron to become US President Donald Trump’s leading force in the Middle East.
It has been joined by guided-missile destroyers USS Arleigh Burke, USS Bulkeley, USS Forrest Sherman, USS Jason Dunham and USS The Sullivans and USS Farragut.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailystar.co.uk ...
The Truman has SIX DDGs in the Battle Group. And probably at least 2 Virginia class boats running picket.
Nobody is going to mess with them, as the smirk on the Admiral's face showed in the video.
The Russians are just there to "observe" and there will be no incidents.
Russian war ships make beautiful target profiles in the periscope plus they have their subs around to hunt too. Lot of rigged for ultra quiet time. Fans turned down reactor pumps on low speed and ambient temps high and staying awake is a biotch on watch. H3ll of a way to make a living.
Just like the Cold War days.
“Don’t worry, I won’t fire first. But if they fire one, I’ll fire one.”
“Fire one.”
It’s important to note the type of ships involved.
The main Russian ship is the Yaroslav Mudry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neustrashimyy-class_frigate
This is the main ship of the group.
Laid down in 1988
Launched in 1991
Not commissioned until 2009
7 ordered
Only 2 built
Compare it to the Arleigh Burkes mentioned
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arleigh_Burke-class_destroyer
USS Arleigh Burke,
USS Bulkeley,
USS Forrest Sherman,
USS Jason Dunham,
USS The Sullivans,
and USS Farragut
The main ship named for the Russians, is no match for ONE Arleigh Burke
The Arleighs have the Phalanx Close-In-Weapons System (CIWS).
At least 4 of the Arleighs are Aegis equipped.
Other than against subsonic, non-maneuvering targets, I would not want to count on CIWS.
One of my favorite movies.
You just described the Russian Switchblade anti-ship missile that the Yaroslav Mudry carries
They must have run out of “trawlers”...
A Carrier Group is an astounding amount of firepower unmatched by any Navy.
They have ASW issues since the S-3 Vikings went to the boneyard with no replacement.
A carrier task force can boast watching you from above, one your level, and from below. Gotta sleep with one eye open.
One of my favorite movies.
We almost never went anywhere in the Med on the Forrestal without our Soviet (back then) escort.
Once we had a ‘secret’ port call scheduled...ship went full dark, low electronics emissions, the whole nine yards.
Guess who led us into the harbor???
It’s pretty hard to be stealthy when you’re 85,000+ tons of Yankee Doodle awesomeness!
“We almost never went anywhere in the Med on the Forrestal without our Soviet (back then) escort.”
And, while relations are strained the US and Russia are not at war. The Russian fleet has every right to go wherever they want in international waters. If they want to follow a US ship that is their right as long as they keep their distance and don’t cause trouble. They’d be negligent in their duty if they didn’t do this.
As a goodwill gesture, the admiral of the US taskforce should send word through the embassy’s (Or maybe just using an old-fashioned semaphore light) inviting the crews of the Russian ships to a sailors beach party at the next port of call, beer, and BBQ provided by the US Navy.
My interactions with Russian tourist here has taught me that nobody, and I mean nobody can party like a Russian.
It should be pointed out that while the Russians have problems with some of their hardware being sub-par, we have an all pro-diversity navy that runs into civilian freighters and tankers repeatedly.
Including the formerly Silent Service. Keep that in mind.
I never thought about a beach party while we were chasing Ivan around in the Med, what a novel idea. Adds a new meaning to “angle on the bow?”. /s
The last US sub to hit anything surfaced under a tourist boat, I believe. Maybe you are better informed than me. Mostly what they hit is totaled in tonnage sunk. Maybe even the tourist boat.
Ummm....
The Obamanavy has had more than a few collisions between the new Diversity Subs and other shipping, usually other Obamanavy vessels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_submarine_incidents_since_2000#USS_Jacksonville_collision
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hartford_and_USS_New_Orleans_collision
The USS episodes were close quarters excercises and some were lousy command structures notice the results. No a$$ scratching or watch winding. The command was changed and the training bettered. You sound like a target sailor.
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