To be fair, I do not think that even half of the soviet ships were seaworthy. That is a huge difference from then to now, pretty much all the current Russian ships listed as active are indeed active.

Because tall ships look better, hands down. It's like comparing the beauty of a house to a grove of aspen trees in fall, it's just out of any league gorgeous.

I know beauty is a thing of personal preference, but IMO the Ford class looks like someone took an E-Class container ship and thought “this ship isn’t asymmetrical enough, let’s put the bridge in the back corner and shape the top to look like something somebody modeled on their solar calculator.”

Reminds me of the poor marine who drowned in that V-22 incident last year because his archaic inflatable life preserver didn’t inflate after he jumped into the water.

Yah, I imagine there is no real rush for the non-nuclear ships. It's not like they are going anywhere.

Yah. It’s like when those “leaked” T-14 photos were coming out. They wanted the world to see.

Here is a nice clip of what one of these missiles can do.

A missile like the Sunburn or Oniks will not “penetrate”armor in the normal sense. It will push the armor through as shrapnel. The power of a modern AShM is such that armor would be completely negated. As a matter of fact, the armor will behave more like a liquid near the blast point.

It's about time someone takes notice of the issues. The huge problem with these ships is that they don't really have much of a mission they can really do well. It's like they tried to make mini LHDs that are the size of frigates. I could see how the Coast Guard could use them, and special forces as well, but they seem…

If you are applying for an auto mechanic, you probably should know what a drivetrain is. If you are trying to become president, you should know what the Nulcear Triad is.

I say vote for your favorite candidate, even if they are polling in the single digits. If enough people do that, they can steal the required number of electoral votes so neither clown can win

The Smetlivy doesn't normally run with an escort, though sometimes will be an escort.

A much better start than the Milwaukee...

This particular ship was modernized mid 1990s. So it has some relatively modern stuff aboard. You know the Russians!If it still floats, modernized, never scrap!

Yah, I posted before I saw the update that the Kashin Class was stationary. It's a miracle they didn't sink the trawler. They probably had a code brown on that vessel

I would have let them collide... That would have been interesting to see, unless the fishing vessel is actually one of those ginormous ships that catch, proccess, and can the fish on board.

I am guessing that it is a “fishing vessel” like those always getting out in the S China Sea by China, Japan, and Vietnam.

I have always though a big missile like a modified Kh-22 with a tiny warhead that carries a bunch of small missiles with it would be a good idea. As it gets in range they all split up. Very expensive, but 2-3 shots would probably destroy anything. Pretty much an air launched long range air-to-surface missile with MIRV…

Yep. And big naval guns like the AK-130 or the Mk. 45 could tear up any medium and low altitude aircraft then. We really are coming full circle in the tech.

It is quite cheap actually, as you surmised. The Topol-M and the Yars are already equipped with ablative skin