US Upgrades Ukrainian Ports To Fit American Warships
USS Carney, DDG 64, prepares to go underway in Odesa, Ukraine.
Our own Poetrooper sent us an interesting link: seems the US is modifying Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea to better fit US and NATO ships. That these ports are near Russian controlled Crimea is sure to rankle the Russians, who deem the Black Sea as their pond. Russia did fire on and take three Ukrainian Navy vessels last fall, and has staged a warship in Havana’s harbor.
Russian Frigate “Admiral Gorshkov” on Cuba port visit
Russian Pond? The US is building up Ukraine’s bases at Ochakiv and Mykolaiv (marked) on the Black Sea coast, west of Russian-occupied Crimea.
If Trump is soft on Russia, what with all that collusion and election meddling, it sure isn’t showing here. The rest of the article may be viewed here: Breaking Defense
Thanks, Poe.
Category: Foreign Policy, Guest Link, NATO, Navy, Russia, Usual Suspects
I wouldn’t mind being a Ukrainian port inspector…if ya know what I mean….
Olga Kurylenko!
So is it safe to say that things are getting back to a sort of Cold War state now, except that we have more scope?
Gee, I do hope that we’re kept on this same track after the next election cycle, and the next two after that.
I think it’s safe to say we’re in a PRE-WWI state.
You could make the argument with Putin’s annexation of Crimea and our (prior admin’s) response being a ho-hum, that we’re much closer to 1938. Heck, Putin annexed the Crimea for the same reason Hitler did Austria; to ‘free’ the ethnic minority and return them to the motherland.
You are aware that the Crimea was only a part of the Ukraine because Khrushchev transferred it from the Russian SSR to the Ukranian SSR in the 1954, right? Before that transfer, it was part of the Russian SSR.
And it’s not a Russian ethnic minority in the Crimea. As of its last census, the Crimea was roughy 65% ethnically Russian.
I have no problem with us getting closer to the Ukraine. But IMO we should butt out regarding the Crimean issue. If anything, Russia IMO has a better historical and demographic claim on the Crimea than does the Ukraine, Khrushchev’s 1954 “gift” notwithstanding.
Nice pic of the Ruskie Frigate going into Cuba. When we went to Gitmo before the name Gitmo became vogue with the public, the Okie 3 used to tie up to a buoy which at the time was called a Med Moore. We lowered the starboard motor whale boat and a Gunners mate with a case of hand grenades and an M-1 Garand rode with us as we circled the ship. Orders were if any bubbles were seen, start dropping the grenades. A large number of com block ships used to pass us as they went into Cuba. In 1961 or 62, A couple of intox sailors were killed when they left the “bloody mile” and wondered into the mine field outside the Cuban fence line.
“Nice pic of the Ruskie Frigate”
Love the windshield and hood ornament.
“In February 2019, it was reported Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral Kasatonov were equipped with a naval version of the new 5P-42 Filin electro-optic countermeasure system. The Filin fires a beam similar to a strobe light that affects enemy’s combatants eyesight, making it more difficult for them to aim at night. During testing, volunteers reportedly used rifles and guns to shoot targets that were protected by the system and reported having trouble aiming because they could not see. Additionally, about half of the volunteers said they felt dizzy, nauseous and disoriented. About 20 percent of the volunteers reported experiencing hallucinations”
Be a shame it should sink in a Cuban Harbor.
Wouldn’t be the first time a sinking in a Cuban harbor started a war.
Remember the Maine!
Spanish-American War
You beat me to it. “Dat’s a nice boat ya got dere . Be a shame if somethin’ was ta happen to it…”
China prolly loving this. The more we spend and pay attention to this part of the world, the less we can spend and pay attention to in their part of the world.
Maybe you squiddy swabbies can enlighten me. Those seem to be awfully restrictive waters. Will any carrier birds have the legs to help out, or do we depend on land based aerial artillery for back up?
JMO, but to me, China is the true long term threat to economic, political, and military security.
Thoughts? Opinions?
“China is the true long term threat”
Nixon and Kissmyassinger started it with “detente”. We buy their shit and fund our demise.
On the other hand we are the Goose that lays golden eggs for them.
China and Russia are natural enemies.
China wants it’s Maritimes back.
We should foment that desire.
Evil bastards that we are.
Far Eastern Russia shares a 2500 mile border with China, whose industrial economy requires more natural resources than China possesses. That’s why the Chinese are busy in Africa, South America and many other places developing so many sources of raw materials.
But right across that northern border with Russia are some of the world’s richest sources of lumber, petroleum and metallic ores of all kinds. By kicking the Russians out of the Far East, which Tsarist Russia seized from the Asian tribes there originally, China could become the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world.
My father pointed this out to me more than sixty years ago and it’s more true now than back then, before China developed their monster economy. Russian strategists have to know that if they are ever preoccupied with or weakened by war in the west, a hungry and opportunistic Chinese dragon is just waiting to chew off their eastern ass.
That’s why Comrade Vlad will make nice with the ChiComs. It’s definitely in Russia’s interest to keep them from from taking an interest in Siberia, and it’s also in their interest to encourage trouble in the western Pacific that distracts our attention from his plans for the ex-Soviet countries on his western border. China, for their part, would be happy to see us focus on eastern Europe while they make their land/sea grabs.
Kind of a Mexican standoff, with two out of three parties ostensibly cooperating with eachother, but keeping an eye on eachother all the same.
For our Nautically Challenged friends:
Other than breaking maritime law and agreements with Turkey pertaining to ship size and type, a US aircraft carrier wouldn’t fit under the bridge spanning the Bosphorus Straights.
Bosphorus Straights
Would an LHD/LHA? I think having a thousand Marines floating around might send an even better message than a CVN.
The Montreux Convention limits warships to 15,000 tons. USS America, LHA-6, tips the scales at 45,693.
See, that’s how it’s done. You politely ask an intelligent question and you will get concise informed answers. Works.Every.Damn.Time.
I was scratching my watch and winding my ass wondering how we could get support to any of our surface ships if they got caught up “in the sh^t.” Didn’t think we could or would even want to put a carrier group in that puddle. Didn’t know about the low clearance bridge. Guess any Naval Aviation support would have to come out of the Med and that appears as if it would require some serious tanker support from somewhere. Then the bad guys would just target the tankers and let the war birds just flame out? Agree with ol’ Poe too, in that this may be just a way to poke at Vlad. I do think I’d brought the port downstream a bit, like he said, give them a little more wiggle room. Also agree with Hondo. The disputed area was RUSSIAN, with RUSSIANS, before the whole USSR came about. Ask the Immortal Light Brigade how their Charge in the Crimea worked out.
And, btw TOW, I google fooed Miss Olga. That caused another involuntary vascular reaction in my nether regions. Are nocturnal emissions the next crisis? That’s a port I’d dock in any storm! Dahell is IDC SARC? He has been conspicuous in his absence of late.
Slavic stunner that she is, she single-handedly made the otherwise-forgettable “Hitman” movie worth watching, and more recently indirectly caused Stalin’s fatal aneurism as Maria Yudina in “The Death of Stalin,” which was funny as all hell. She was also a Bond girl—though I doubt she was really able to convince anybody that her character was supposed to be Bolivian, but who cares? And she also speaks English and French in addition to Russian and Ukrainian (how close are those two, anyway?). You gotta love a woman who’s both smart and hot!
Apparently Russian and Ukrainian are not that closely related. I think Polish is closer to both than they are to each other, different alphabets notwithstanding.
Another army type here, ol’ Poe shares the opinion of 5th/77th FA that those seem like awfully restrictive waters. Mykolaiv is forty miles upriver and while it may be a broad river, it still leaves little room for evasive maneuvers. And with a major Russian Navy presence a couple of hundred miles away, including naval air, I don’t see the wisdom of this. Just south a short way is the huge, Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa, which would seem to me to be a far more logical site for basing American vessels with it’s ready access to open water.
Or could it be this is all just another geopolitical exercise in poking the Russian bear?
“Could” we put a carrier in the Black Sea? Of course. Drop a couple bridges and motor on. Piss off Europe AND Asia at the same time. But choke points are scary, and will have to be sanitized prior to the big ship’s passage. I’m sure somewhere in the five-sided wind tunnel there’s a plan for all of this.
As for the realpolitik, Putin will have to pull his horns back a bit; “accidentally” causing causalities and damage to US vessels is a very steep slippery slope, and he knows it. Trump is playing chess here, and all Putin remembers is Obama’s checkers.
There may well be a plan. But whether that plan is workable or even sane is another question.
The Pentagon isn’t nicknamed the Five Sided Asylum because the nickname is funny. I swear, sometimes I think having common sense is a disqualifying attribute for anyone willing to work there.
Possible gamechanger:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanal_%C4%B0stanbul
Yeah, but I don’t see the Turks letting us transit that canal with the current regime in power. Erdogan is a double-dealing shitheel that can’t be trusted.
All that “bottleneck” stuff is self-evident to the Russians. And yet, there we are making port prep with the Ukraine.
…Almost as if someone has worked out the bottleneck kinks and plans to force that entry, and keep open for exploitation.
For the cost of some dockside work, we just forced the Russians to re-think their previously secure flank. And they are a paranoid sort about securing the flanks of the Motherland.
We are nowhere near as concerned about Russians in Cuba, because taking it away from them would be much less onerous compared to taking Normandy or Okinawa, which we have done.
Shrewd.