Originally Posted by
Tartiflette Fan
On what basis is it plausible ? I have read nothing that says there were hundreds of drones, or even that Moskva was engaging any of them .
AFAIK Neptun is a sea-skimmer ( it's derived from the Kh 35 which has a cruising altitude of 10-15m and terminal of 4m ): the missile in this video is soaring thousand s of feet up. Finally, all previous reports have seemed to assume land-launch; how could that plane remain undetected at that high altitude when it fired the Neptunes ?
The Neptune is a land-launched system as advertised, but nothing that the Ukrainians have done to date should make anyone assume that they are not resourceful and committed to their home and families. It took a very short time to make in-flight refuel available in '82, it's not going to take much longer in '22 for a dedicated group to add the Neptune to a rack on an aircraft, and the kh-35/35U came as ASM anyway. Did that happen, why should it? There are easier and more survivable ways to surprise the Russians who have shown a singular failure of imagination and response. I do hope that the Russians continue with their assumption of superiority in numbers "trump"-ing initiative and creativity; a defeat in place of the Russian Black Sea fleet, BSF, is overdue. As Boyd contended, and "Sub" Tzu alludes to, getting inside the decision process of the red team changes the game. When the Ukrainians finally disclose how they approached the Moskva it will be interesting reading, and I hope that doesn't occur before the same tactic removes the remaining BSF from the top of the water to the bottom. Nothing personal, Vlad the impaler, just get out of Ukraine, the criminal and genocidal invasion is unwelcome.