Originally Posted by
dead_pan
Good point. There's isn't going to be much drift in the 100m of so of seawater between it and the Moskva if they do sink it.
Have to say it does make a very tempting target...
Great diving spot though, so long as you are wearing a lead drysuit and have a windscreen washer on your mask to wash the mud off from the Black Sea water. Sounds like there were indeed nukes on board, as postulated, so there will be a need for radiological monitoring of the ocean, like K219, and... etc... Low likelihood of leakage, but then so was the self immolation of 3 oil farms, 3 ships, etc. It is in relatively shallow water, so there is the issue of pilferage. Wasn't there a Bond film like that?
Moskva is lying in about 25 fathoms/51m, more or less, so is not a deep dive. Deep enough. If she is on her side, then her uppermost part of the hull is only 30m/ from the surface. If she sank level, then she is a hazard to shipping but would make a great diving wreck. she drew 8m roughly, and there was a mast height of around 56m, of which some will have fallen off, maybe. if she was sitting flat on the bottom, there would be about 10m of mast out of the water, so, she is probably on her side, they did say she rolled over. so her SS-N missiles will be sitting at least 2 of them, around 30m from the surface. Assumed she had a minimum load out of 4 nukes, it may be 2, but it won't be less than that number, and it will be shipshape an even number. The loadout would want the nukes in the safest location for which a case could be made is tubes 1,3, 2 & 4. alternatively tubes 13,14,15 & 16. Radiologically the forward tubes would be safest for the crew, but as the Russian navy doesn't care about the crew, then the missiles would be safer around the aft tubes, and that could be an issue. The strike was around the CIC area or slightly aft of tube 16, so there could be damage, but none was able to be seen in the snapshots.