5-I operational. Interview of Admiral Retired Selivanova Valentin Egorovich

The moment I really felt that our fleet
it is a world force that we are not just sometimes somewhere, in some
points of the oceans appear, but actually we are present, and with
we are forced to read, we can assume 1967 year. 14 July ...
I remembered this day well, because it was the Day of the taking
Bastille Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee and the Ministry of Defense of the USSR
decided to form the 5 th operational squadron in the Mediterranean.

Fifth Squadron

Our ships even before that appeared there regularly, but from that day they began to be there on a permanent basis.

And this was the first truly OPERATIONAL squadron. A permanent squadron. After all, the fleet, when it is in the base, is nothing more than an expensive, but inactive toy. It's not for nothing that Americans always talk not so much about their own fleetshow many about certain operational formations in a particular area. The real fleet is the fleet that is at sea, on the move. "At sea - at home!" - as the great Makarov said about the main principle of training a military sailor.

And 5-I squadron marked the beginning of a fundamentally new approach to the use of the fleet.

Then soon they created the 8 th operational squadron in the Indian Ocean and the 17 th in the Pacific. By the same type, they later began to call the 10 th on the Pacific Fleet and the 7 th operational squadrons in the North. It is sad today to hear how today's Russia, straining all its forces, is trying to "push" a detachment of five pennants into the Mediterranean Sea, and so it still cannot do this.

In 5-th squadron, four nuclear submarines, ten diesel, two Kuga — ship strike groups, one CTG — the main group, and support forces — four tankers, two floating tanks, refrigerators, and so on, were constantly in the service. The squadron usually consists of 70-80 pennants, of which fourteen are submarines, 25-30 warships, and the rest are support ships. Diesel boats came to us from the 4 squadron from Severomorsk at once by a whole brigade. We walked around the British Isles, through Gibraltar, approached our 3-th point in the Gulf of Hammamet, where my headquarters was. Received the task and dispersed - each in its place across the Mediterranean Sea. After one and a half to two months of service, they were on schedule at the 3 point, there stood our floating workshop. Usually late in the evening. In the dark. During the night the boats replenished stocks of food, regeneration, water, the crew went to the bath. And in the morning they plunged, went to the area of ​​patrol.

Of course, they were hunted by the Orions - American anti-aircraft fighters watched, tried to cling. But we always provided our boats a detachment from pursuit. When the boat plunged, our ships began to go around the floating master in different directions at different speeds, while simultaneously searching for American boats in different directions, which could also try to establish tracking for us. At this time, our boat quietly went completely the other way. The Orions were forced to dump all their buoys, trying to sort out such a cacophony of noises, but they could no longer “catch” our boat and usually left.

I had fifteen submarines statewide, and they were all in the Mediterranean, under water, and participated in operations. In general, the management of submarines is a rather complicated process. After all, these boats are scattered throughout the sea, they should not interfere with each other, but should all work to fulfill the tasks of the squadron. Therefore, the boats go strictly on the designated route or built in the "veil". At the connection of the boat out only at a certain time and not every day, and sometimes not every week. But I always knew exactly where and when each boat is located. Because she was given the task, to which point to come, how much, a week or ten days, to be there, and where to go according to the plan.

The second point of the meeting was in the Sallum Bay area off the coast of Libya and Egypt. This is the 52 point, it has been nicknamed by the sailors "Selivanovka village". Why so called? Probably because the main forces of the squadron were here. And all the ships, when they came from the Northern, Baltic or Black Sea fleets, first came to me, to the 52 point. Here I checked them, set tasks.

In the Aegean Sea, our reconnaissance ships were constantly operating. They conducted radio interception between NATO headquarters and Istanbul, for example. The Americans in the Mediterranean was deployed one of the most powerful operational fleets (6 fleet of the US Navy). Somewhere 35-40 units of ships. Usually it consisted of two aircraft carriers, with each group of five or six escort ships, a flotilla of six submarines in Sardinia, a helicopter landing assault ship, and a brigade of marines. Their ships were much smaller than ours. But they had bases, so they did not need to hold so many supply vessels here. The maximum they had in our sea was one multi-purpose vessel providing the Sacramento to serve aircraft carriers. They used trawlers, tugboats and tracking ships not for their own, but for coastal NATO countries.

When you leave the Dardanelles, you are immediately taken to the tracking of the "Turks." Leads to Chios, there is a "Greek" who accepts you. Well, with the Greeks, even though they are NATO members, our relations have always been excellent. Immediately you get in touch with their intelligence officer, greet, ask to convey personal greetings to their admiral Vasilokapulu. Thirty minutes later, they usually send a return hello from the admiral and continue to behave very kindly. So it is on the other side of Europe: first the English follow, then the French, the Portuguese, and finally the Spaniards.

Relations between the sailors, even hostile fleets were, in general, respectful. Here are just the British differed arrogance and some boorishness. For example, they made an effigy of a Russian pilot in a red spacesuit on their ships and hung them on a yoke. Then, with this stuffed animal, we passed by our aircraft-carrying cruiser, and even some offensive song was launched.

Americans, on the contrary, have always been very correct towards us. If I am anchored in the 52 point and an American detachment enters our area, the commander of the US 6 fleet, usually holding his pennant on the cruiser, will necessarily transmit by radio: “To the commander of the 5 squadron. Greetings. I came, I will stand here two days at anchor. "

The level of training of American sailors is very high. They have a huge fleet, and he always carries out military service in the ocean. There is, of course, a trifle like coast guard border guard boats, but the rest is the ships of the ocean fleet, and they are constantly in some operational units.

Diesel boats, they refused to build in the seventies - only nuclear submarines, and they are constantly in the ocean. Carry combat service cycle. I returned, two days later to the dock, restoring to the dock, rest or changing crew - and again to go on a hike. Likewise, aircraft carriers that are in the ocean for 6-8 months. We constantly monitored them and sometimes recorded what they were doing on 250 sorties a day! This is a huge load on the whole crew! Americans are real "sea wolves", professionals, and it is just silly not to reckon with this.

But the fleets of small countries, for example, English or French, which each comprise about one hundred thousand people, are also constantly at sea. Even small vessels. You look, and the same Frenchman - the IPC (a small anti-submarine ship), stomps from Toulon to carry out military service in Polynesia. He will come to our point, greet, play the accordion, and slap on the Suez Canal for six months or a year.

Or the famous helicopter carrier "Jeanne d'Arc", who is already forty years old. Every year he makes a round-the-world voyage with the French cadets ... Once I was on a visit to Algeria with our aircraft carrier, and we met there with Jeanne d'Arc. They invited us aboard a visit. True, they complained that they were returning from the Around the World, the last call, so they had nothing special to treat us: no drinks, no national delicacies ...

I called three fleets, these are all fleets constantly in the sea. And now the Germans began to go out to the sea more and more actively. Now they are in combat service in the Indian Ocean.

The main specificity of the 5 squadron service was that in the Mediterranean we did not have bases at all. Only in Tartus did we have a logistics point. There I always had a floating workshop, a boat with divers, a floating warehouse with all property and food, and a tugboat. With Syria in general, we had a very good relationship. Diesel submarines, for example, came to our squadron for a year. The boat will come to the Mediterranean Sea, swim for three or four months, then the crew needs rest. I am bringing her to Tartus, there already is a reserve crew on the floating workshop, taken by plane from the Northern Fleet. The reserve crew takes the boat, and the old one sits on the hospital ship of the Black Sea Fleet "Kuban" or "Yenisei" and stomps a week to Sevastopol. The crew, first of all, rests in good conditions on a hospital ship, and then relaxes for ten days in a holiday home in Sevastopol. Again loaded on the "Kuban" and goes to Tartus. It takes about a month, during which time the backup crew puts the boat in order. The main crew takes the ship and again goes to sea.

In addition, we were repaired in Tivat in Yugoslavia and in Bizerte in Tunisia, on the Greek island of Siroe. In general, we were especially respected in Tunisia. When the Soviet commander-in-chief came there, he was not even accepted as some kind of president. He was accepted as a god. But not only because they respect our fleet and the USSR in general, although it was, of course. And also, of course, because the Soviet Union very generously, sometimes even at inflated prices, paid for the repair of ships. Of course, we did this not because there was no own repair base, but above all, to economically “tie” Tunisia, Yugoslavia, Greece, Libya, and Algeria to ourselves. When our ship arrived at the port, there all the local authorities and the "firmachi" lined up, greeted us like relatives, because they really wanted to make good money. And it should be noted that repairs have always been very high quality, it was impossible to find fault.

Generally, recalling that time, you see that all the forces of the country were then thrown at the rapid deployment of the ocean fleet. You remember, probably, that particular alarming feeling of the mid-eighties, when it seemed that the war could start at any moment. And today I am even more confident that if there were no our operational squadrons, if the USSR did not have such powerful Armed Forces at all, then this war would really happen. Knowing already history last years. Seeing the fate of Iraq and Yugoslavia, knowing the Americans already from a modern position, their arrogance, a bet on power and the immediate readiness to use this power without any consideration for morality and international law, it is clear that if we did not have such power, all the plans of the Pentagon, All these "Drobshots" in relation to Russia would surely be fulfilled.

I talked about the correctness in the relationship of seafarers at sea. But let it not seem to you a kind of peaceful idyll. Idyll in the sea was not. The atmosphere was explosive all the time. We constantly monitored each other’s boats, the boats tried to break away from the pursuit, surface forces prevented each side from watching the other. And all these years, we constantly kept each other at gunpoint. Our missiles have always been aimed at their aircraft carriers. Constantly, every sixty minutes, all attack ships and boats of the squadron were given target designations on NATO aircraft carriers, locations, course, speed. Readiness for start-up never exceeded two minutes. And that is why I was firmly convinced that the Americans would not dare to attack us. They knew very well then that later they would not find it. That is precisely why, as I have already said, respectful relations with the Americans were emphasized. They respected our strength!

Now it is difficult to say how much time I spent directly in the Mediterranean from the seven years that I served there. We had officers who were constantly in the squadron for three years and for five years, and some warrant officers were long-livers in general, remained in the Mediterranean for ten years. In general, officers always sought to get on our squadron: it was a very interesting and well-paid service. There were different salary increments. Thirty percent is the total markup in the fleet, after the straits — fifty. Twenty-two percent of payments were issued in local currency if you entered the port. I received a 72 check there a month, and in the Union a check cost fifteen rubles.

But I had such a mode of service, which, probably, correctly called Kainov. Each year, the headquarters determined the vacation schedule for the commanders of the operational squadrons, which was later approved by the commander-in-chief. According to this schedule, I was entitled to thirty days of vacation a year and an additional fifteen days of rest on the shore. My vacation usually started from March 1 to April 1. The February 25 numbers were called to me from the headquarters by the admiral on duty, reminded me that I would soon be on leave, and that I should inform the commander-in-chief what I would leave for the squadron. I reported that I have such a ship going to Sevastopol, and it will be 1 in March, God forbid, February 28, a day earlier. On the way back, the same thing - you have to leave Sevastopol not a day later than April 1. And all this time the commander was supposed to know where I am.

Somehow, I remember, I was on November 1 on summing up at the Ministry of Defense, which coincided with the time I had to rest on the beach. And on November 2, my vacation expired. Immediately after the meeting, the commander-in-chief asks me when I plan to go to the squadron. I answer that now, until the November holidays, no one goes to the sea with us, I will go 9 to Kartan in Tartus. Then Gorshkov, with genuine surprise, speaks to me, saying that you will be seven days in Sevastopol? The fact that I have a wife and children there was not even taken into account. The commander got up from the table, began to walk back and forth and thoughtfully sentence: "What can I do for seven whole days on the shore, I can not imagine!". Realizing his mood, I said that you could try to go "under the red flag" on some civilian vessel with fishermen with transport workers who were heading towards the Mediterranean, and then jump onto your ship. We talked in Moscow at eight o'clock in the evening, and an hour later I was found entrusted and reported that the commander-in-chief had already arranged with the civilians so that I would leave Sevastopol with the fishermen tomorrow. At one o'clock in the morning I flew to Sevastopol, where an officer met me at the ramp who reported that as early as eight in the morning the fishermen were leaving the Kamyshovaya Bay for the sea. And without going home I immediately went to the sea. So you had to serve!

Though the sailors were tanned from our squadron, as if after a resort, the ships and crews in the Mediterranean were not on vacation, but were constantly engaged in combat service. The sea was filled with warships of many countries, constantly ready for combat operations. All the time there were two US aircraft carriers. One carrier group in the base area in Naples, the other in Haifa, in Israel. I had the strength to stand in such a way that one part was located in the Tunisian region, the other at the Gulf of Sallum. Each part was aimed at its enemy carrier group. Each aircraft carrier was accompanied by our anti-ship missiles. Next to the aircraft carrier was always our tracking ship, which detected each take-off of the American carrier-based aircraft and transmitted this data to the boats. In addition to boats, each aircraft carrier was accompanied by our KUGs (ship strike groups). If it is a cruiser, whose missile range is three hundred and three hundred and fifty kilometers, then it goes at a distance of three hundred kilometers from the enemy's AUG (carrier-based strike group). I tried to distribute forces in such a way that no less than thirty of our missiles were aimed at every American aircraft carrier, ready to launch rockets in two minutes. And every hour I gave the updated target designation to all the squadron means, the enemy was constantly on sight. And we, of course, were also on the sights of the Americans. At the same time, twenty-five percent, that is, every fourth of our missiles, were equipped with nuclear ammunition. There are eight missiles on the boat, two of them with the ABM. On the RKR (missile cruiser) "Glory" - sixteen missiles, four of them with nuclear warheads. The Soviet Union was the first to commit itself to nuclear weapon do not apply. But it is difficult to say how it was done during the war. For example, if in battle I have already fired my missiles with conventional ammunition, but they continue to attack me from all sides, and no one can help me? How can you stop the resistance without spending your main striking power?

Our calculations showed that in those years their AUG was capable of assassinating twenty-two missiles. Already the twenty third rocket aircraft carrier catches overboard. Twenty-fourth could be shot down again, but then they could miss three consecutive and so on. That is, when exceeding twenty-two missiles in a simultaneous salvo, we have already with a high degree of probability hit the main target - an aircraft carrier. Therefore, we believed that thirty missiles should always be ready for launch. But I honestly never believed that the Americans would really be able to shoot down all the first twenty-two rockets. I am sure that this number would not exceed ten. I have observed the combat training of their anti-aircraft gunners many times. They always fired only at parachute targets. We didn’t even think of shooting, we never shot at parachute targets. It's just a laugh, giveaway! We always fired on practical rockets. Those that fly to you clearly, at real speeds, from different directions.

I remember when I was the commander of the division in the Baltic Fleet, we conducted exercises. At Cape Taran, in my detachment, twelve missiles were simultaneously launched from different directions. Some of the missiles were launched from a submarine, and at the same time, we were attacked from all sides by missile boats. We then shot down nine of our own rockets. At the same time, our rockets are smart, if they meet a less interesting target, then they miss it, are looking for something bigger. If the destroyer is on the way to the aircraft carrier, then the rocket will go round it from the right or from the left side and fly to the target with a larger reflecting surface, that is, it will find the aircraft carrier. Moreover, the accuracy of our missiles is simply phenomenal. I saw dozens of missile training launches and almost always they hit not just the target, but also the geometric center of the target.

There was such a case, our destroyer, the 956 project, was sold to the Chinese. And there, in China, they conducted the first shooting, which was also attended by our specialists. The Chinese set a goal: decommissioned tankerok for a thousand and a half tons. Usually, the target is placed on two anchors, so that the working width of the target is large. But then this tanker with a stern barrel broke off and got to the shooting destroyer stern so that the target width was no more than fifteen meters, and the tanker, apparently, was full of holes, gradually settled in the water and by the time of launch he had a strong nose. So, our rocket hit exactly in the middle of the deck, into the superstructure, broke through it, went through the hull and turned the tanker's nose through the bow. The Chinese were shocked. On submarines, the missiles were still "smarter." If the commander decides to make a salvo at once with eight rockets, then he shoots them one by one, then the rockets themselves line up in the sky in battle order, and only then go to the goal. There were debriefings when they reported that all missile launches were a 100% hit. Sometimes, quite rarely, there could be problems with the rocket itself at launch, engine failure or some kind of system.

But if our rocket entered the course, then you can be sure that it will find its goal and will definitely fall into the geometric middle. So we were proud of our weapons, our weapons were respected. Therefore, I am sure that the Americans in the event of war would never have our twenty-two missiles shot down! And, as I have already said, there were at least thirty for each AUG! And it was 1977-78's. Then we have the skills and capabilities of weapons only improved.
Constant tensions in the Mediterranean have sometimes resulted in truly dangerous situations. In 1983, the next Arab-Israeli war began. I have already forgotten how and for what reason it began. It seems someone was killed in London, it does not matter. An artillery duel began between Israel and Lebanon, Israel and Syria. And then began the offensive of the Israeli army in the Bekaa Valley, where Syrian troops defended.

My forces were at the Bay of Mersa Matruh, in the 52-th point, and I already pulled a large detachment of ships into the area of ​​Cyprus. On the third day of the conflict with the TsKP Armed Forces, the duty general gave me the order of the Minister of Defense at zero o'clock to anchor in the Syrian port of Tartus. It was about six o'clock, it was eight o'clock until midnight. I immediately realized that the Israelis were apparently planning a missile-bombing attack on Tartus. And if my ships have time to enter the port, then, most likely, Israel will not dare to strike this blow. Israelis can be understood. It was not reasonable to contact us. And bombing Tartus with the Soviet warships in it is suicide. After all, I will have every right to hit Israeli rockets and airplanes on my own - I don’t know who and where the bombs are aimed at, in the city or in my ships. And I have more than enough strength for this ...

During the Battle of Stalingrad Khryukin (future Marshal aviation) gave the command to all planes that could fly into the air, fly from all airfields to bomb an erupted German tank the column. I gave almost the same order to the squadron forces. Everyone on the go - full speed and go to Tartus! That was a sight! They walked in the dark, the pipes glowed red-hot and glowed, throwing whole sheaves of fire into the sky, and walked to the limit. We were at such a distance that strictly by midnight we did not have time. At 23-50, there were still eleven miles to the coast. We held thirty knots, so in ten minutes we could have gone a maximum of another five miles. But the city was already visible, before it was twenty-two kilometers, the lights on the horizon were shining. Here the CCP again gets in touch, the general on duty asks what to report to the Minister of Defense. And here, I confess, I decided that the "raid", this concept is extensible. I’m covering the city with my weapons. Now I can accomplish any task. Therefore, I reported that I was observing the city, I was anchoring. And half an hour later he anchored! Thus, we prevented the bombing of Tartus. In general, my ships visited Tartus port very often, I could take as many ships as I wanted at any time.

Off the coast of Morocco was another case. There is a site that Morocco considered to be its roots, and the whole world did not recognize their jurisdiction over this site. And fishermen from all over the world were fishing there, without any permission from Morocco. Moroccans on their boats drove these fishermen, sometimes fired. Therefore, the USA, France, England and we usually sent warships to this site to protect our fishermen. If our ship was standing there, the Moroccans did not touch the Soviet fishermen, they did not interfere with fishing. They were driving the Turks, the Greeks, the Japanese ... There were even awesome situations - the Japanese got into the habit of fishing there, and at the sight of a Moroccan boat they immediately raised the Soviet flag and calmly fished further.

Then one day my minesweeper was returning from this area from the rybokhrany to Sevastopol. Minesweeper fell in behind the warrant of the American detachment of ships and goes quietly to himself. It got dark. And suddenly they wake me up - the commander of the minesweeper, reports: "He was attacked by American aircraft! The bombs fell aft, a hundred meters. Allow them to return fire when they repeat the attack!" All, of course, agitated. Attack! But I immediately guessed what was the matter. Just the American pilots at that moment undertook to work out the night bombardment in the wake. They have such an educational method: they bomb the (practical) bomb at their own ship and make a correction about a hundred meters at the stern, then the bombs should go exactly one hundred meters astern into the wake of the water, then this is considered a hit. And their pilots simply confused my minesweeper with their ship in the dark. I calmed the commander, explained the situation, warned that most likely they would still be bombed so that he was ready for this, did not go in the warrant of the American ships, kept calm. And for sure - in a few minutes the commander reported that another series of bombs had fallen behind the stern. So he was bombed all night long, until he came out of the warrant of the American ships ....

In general, much that today seems impossible or even forbidden, then it was ordinary and natural. Returning to the same nuclear weapons. For example, a diesel submarine should go after six months of military service in the dock in Algeria. And she has two torpedoes with nuclear weapons on board. And these torpedoes with nuclear weapons should be unloaded from a boat, and, of course, at night for reasons of secrecy and at sea. And here we unload torpedoes. The boat is at the side, night, rain. The torpedo is fed from the hatch, attached extensions. And the pitching is strong, and it is difficult for sailors to hold a torpedo in their hands. One sailor didn’t keep the stretch and “touched” us along the board with this very nuclear warhead. Then the boat rocked the wave and the sailors from its deck flew overboard. As long as they are pulled out of the water, the torpedo hangs on stretch marks, and lazily beats about the side. So what? Nothing - everyone laughs. Why, adventure! We called this process of unloading a "criminal act." Then after repair in the same order, this torpedo is loaded back. Then this "criminality" was commonplace.
Today, when you know in what a pitiable state the fleet is in, when you know that there are no our ships in the ocean zone, it becomes, of course, sad. For me, this is all the more regrettable because I commanded the operational squadron. And the operational squadron is different in that it is constantly in operation, in fact, constantly at sea. Every day I saw on the map of the Mediterranean Sea, where my forces are, naval ships and submarines, support ships. All I saw on the map, who goes where. Warships by their tasks. Security ships on their own. But in general, the squadron existed without specific specific bases, was autonomous from the coast.

We knew the Mediterranean Sea far and wide, all the depths, all the shores. Each
"Gorka" on the shore was registered. For example, we are standing at the bay Svlum off the coast
Egypt and Libya. The storm begins, we take off and go to Crete. There are two districts,
under Kufanisi and under Gavdos there are two islands where there are mountains. Greece has six miles
territorial waters. We approach these mountains at sixty and a half
cable, that is, a hundred meters from the territorial waters of Greece. And there we have
the sea is a maximum of two points, or even calm. And get a little further from
mountains a couple of miles, there are already four points, even further a couple of miles - and there are all seven
eight points.

The weather on the Mediterranean is very changeable. I will not give many examples, but I will give two examples. We once had a minesweeper in a terrible storm, the wind reached thirty meters per second, a tank with fuel burst on the minesweeper. The ship commander contacted me, asked if it was time for the crew to wear white shirts. But managed to save this minesweeper. Another, perhaps the most famous case when the weather mixed up our plans was during the meeting of Gorbachev and Bush in Malta in 1989.

We stood in the bay of Marsaxlokk. The meeting of the presidents was supposed to be on my RKR "Glory" on December 1. At night, a strong wind arose, which tore us from the fodder barrels (the Maltese never really installed them seriously). And we are anchored. It’s good that I had two anchors, I was calm, although I had only twenty meters of clear water astern. In addition, I, knowing the nature of the Mediterranean, hired two port tugs in advance. They could help me, if that ... And the Americans approached this issue somewhat arrogantly. The tugboats were not hired at all. Their cruiser came and just got on the barrel. While the weather was normal, everything was fine, but as it was, they were also blown off the barrel. But they had one anchor, they gave it away, but he crawled. Admiral Williams had to ask me for one tug to level up. But, apparently, he could not cope. Gradually they were being dragged toward me. Somewhere in an hour William comes at me and says that maybe some terrorists are sitting on his anchor chain. Here, they say, it is demolishing him, and he wants to send his combat swimmers to check the chain. Therefore, he will ask me to give the command to my combat swimmers on his - not to shoot ... And we had an agreement with the Americans that for any underwater target fifty meters from the ship would have been fired to kill. Between the ships three hundred meters, that is, neutral water is only two hundred meters, and here the ships under the wind converged. Our combat swimmers went in pairs under the "Glory" and under the "Maxim Gorky", where Gorbachev lived. On the "Gorky" from the brigade of the special forces of the Baltic Fleet, on the "Glory" - from the Black Sea. It was William who asked our swimmers not to attack their swimmers, if his cruiser brought him very close to us ... As a result, the wind was such that the negotiations between Bush and Gorbachev on ships did not take place. In the morning, when it became light, I jumped onto the boat and came to the "Maxim Gorky". There, Shevardnadze and Yakovlev are both extremely annoyed. And Yakovlev also has December 2's birthday, and he wanted to celebrate it on a warship. Both to me, they say, when we sail? Well, I showed them in the porthole, look what a wind and what pitching ... And behind the porthole - just a riot of elements. They looked at it - and both bored at once. So Gorbachev and his team of destroyers did not set foot on the deck of our "Glory". The weather itself, apparently, did not want to ...

I retired when I was sixty years old. Now it is the age limit for generals and admirals in Russia. But it was just one of the reasons for leaving. The main reason is that the fleet is not. I served on ships all my service, from lieutenant to the Chief of the General Staff of the Navy, and I even met my 60th anniversary on the deck of an aircraft carrier. But I could no longer see further how the fleet was falling apart in my eyes and dying.

At first there was a certain misunderstanding, it seemed that all this orgy of the early nineties for a while. It was thought that a year or two - and everything will return to normal. But year went by year, and nothing changed. And by the year of 1996, I finally understood how the maritime state of Russia is rapidly heading towards sunset, and in the next fifteen to twenty years we will not have an ocean fleet.

After all, the fleet is not created immediately. It does not happen that he came to the "shop", paid a billion - they gave you a ship. It is necessary to build ships, long and hard, regularly invest money. For example, take the youngest ship of the Russian fleet, the nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great. I was appointed commander of the Leningrad Naval Base 5 in January 1990. In the same year, this cruiser was supposed to pass, it was already standing near the wall of the Baltic factory, almost ready. But he was handed over only in 98. And thank God, that they still found some means for this.

Another example. 21 December 93-th year in Severodvinsk was laid multi-purpose boat of the fourth generation. The other day she was already ten years old, and she has not yet been handed over to the fleet. The fact that there was noisy, that here, they say, "Cheetah" passed! - this is still the Soviet project of the eighties. Then he was mortgaged and more than half financed! And how many more boats from the Soviet time are left unfinished in Severodvinsk, in Komsomolsk-on-Amur!

Even when funding is proceeding normally, the ship is being built for several years. Therefore, any shipbuilding program is always designed for decades to come. Stocks are the future of the fleet, and by how much they are loaded and what - you can always clearly judge the future of the fleet. But today there is nothing on the stocks and nothing is being laid! And it is better than any words that the fleet will not receive a single ship of the first and second rank for the next five to seven years, even if a miracle happens and large financial resources are attracted.
Maybe they can build several boats, well, another yacht for the Kremlin will be completed. By the way, this is also indicated by the new Navy doctrine, which was recently promulgated.

This is payback for the fact that during the decade no money was allocated either for the construction of ships or for their use and repair.

... Now they like to say that here, they say, "the combat core of the fleet has been saved." So I invented this formulation in my time! But this formulation meant completely different! When we were faced with a choice - to reduce or completely collapse the fleet left without financing - we decided to make such a reduction that would preserve all the most combat-ready and modern fleet structures and formations.

After all, a ship, unlike a tank, is impossible, having thoroughly lubricated, canned, closed in boxing and, putting a sentry in front of the box, to be sure that you have kept the weapon for the years ahead. The ship from its first day to the last lives as a living organism, and it constantly needs to be provided. At sea, he spends his own resource, but at the pier the ship must "rest" - it is constantly necessary to supply light, water, steam to it. All its mechanisms and systems need to be tested and tested, repaired and maintained. Cut off the ship from all this - and in a few months you will get a pile of scrap metal - the ship will die, having knocked out all its resources.

So, when we talked about the preservation of the "fleet core", we talked about preserving that part of it that is capable of ensuring the combat capability of the fleet for five to seven years until the normal funding of both the fleet and the shipbuilding program is restored. Alas, this never happened ...

In 1992, I became Chief of the Fleet General Staff and received 452 thousands of 300 personnel from the fleet personnel. And the fleet passed to his successor in the 1996 year, having 190 in the ranks of thousands of people. Numerically, the fleet almost halved. And the ships even difficult to say how much - at times! All the cruisers, all aircraft carriers, except Kuznetsov, are gone. Nuclear cruisers already did not go with me and still do not go - there is no money for repairs.

A large nuclear reconnaissance ship "Ural", and this is a huge ship, of greater displacement than the "Kirov", was built in Leningrad, once went to combat service, stood up for repair. For the current repair there is no money so far. That is, the "Ural" is idle with the 92 of the year. But before that, all the time we had reconnaissance ships carrying combat service off the coast of the United States. They always stood at California and at Florida, conducted operational, sometimes tactical reconnaissance, recorded missile launches, aircraft launches. For those who stood at Florida, we had a special supply of fuel to Cuba. I later flew to Cuba, decided what to do with this fuel when we no longer had ships there.

And the "Ural" one would give information for our fleet throughout the United States!

In Soviet times, every morning the commander-in-chief on duty at the TsKP reported on each ocean where our ships and aircraft were located, and then on the ships and aircraft of the enemy. And the task was to ensure that the location and course of each ship of the 2 class and above all NATO countries and the world in general was known to the commander-in-chief. And God forbid, if the intelligence chief said, for example, that the Lincoln aircraft carrier went out to replace the operational fleet of the US fleet in the Mediterranean Sea and with it four escort ships such and such. But such a frigate must go, but it has not yet been discovered by our means. In this case, the commander in chief was very severe. Always followed the order to find urgent! And all our intelligence, ships, aircraft, space, stood on the ears. God forbid, if the evening report on the location of the frigate will not be established.

Somehow, after the dismissal, I was in the General Staff building. The head of the central command post offered me to look at a new electronic system for observing the situation in the world ocean. These are two such large panels the size of a meter and a half and a half. I highlighted the operational situation. I look: all the space from Severomorsk and to the west to Norfolk is blue. The solid blue points of the "enemy" ships and not one red one is ours. I say with insult that I am my own person, not a stranger. What are you showing me all others? Show me yours. And to me, hiding his eyes, the admiral reports: "So there are no ours!"

I asked to be shown the Pacific Ocean. There's the same picture. Up to San Diego, solid blue dots. There is no red dot in the ocean. Not one of our ships at sea, not a single strategic boat. I do not understand then what they do there in the command post, what they command ...

The "great breakthrough" of the Soviet fleet in the ocean occurred before my eyes. It was in the sixties that our fleet became from the coastal world, the ocean. I entered the Frunze School in 54, and in 55, I went to practice for the first time at sea, and in 58, I left the school as a lieutenant. Until the early sixties, the Soviet Navy developed very rapidly. A peculiar milestone was the 1952 year, when our cruiser participated in the coronation of the English king. Our cruiser "68 BIS" made a real sensation there with its demonstration performances. But this was only seven years after the war, but we already had excellent new cruisers.

But my career began just during the Khrushchev downsizing fleet. As you remember, since 60, Nikita got so carried away with rockets that he declared that the fleet as such was no longer needed by the USSR. In front of my eyes the cruisers Aurora and Kronstadt were cut at the Baltic Shipyard.

But all these misconceptions about the uselessness of a strong fleet quickly disappeared during the Caribbean crisis in 1962. Then it became clear to all that the Soviet Union must constantly have military units of the Navy in the ocean. And this year began the massive construction of ships. The fleet began to receive cruisers, the first helicopter carriers "Moscow", "Leningrad". I remember my feeling when I saw the "Moscow", there was confidence that this was only the beginning, that there would be many such ships. Even then I began to dream of serving on a helicopter carrier. Then this dream came true with interest, I raised my flag on all the aircraft-carrying cruisers of the USSR, which only they had, and ended up serving on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov.

And I began my ship's journey from the destroyer, where I commanded the battery. It was the destroyer "Smarmy" of the Pacific Fleet. Then the destroyers began to preserve slowly, I went to a small anti-submarine ship, then I became the commander of this ship, then I commanded the patrol ship, then the destroyer. Then the academy, after which he became the chief of staff of the brigade of anti-submarine ships in the Baltic Fleet, and two years later I was appointed commander of the 76 th brigade of destroyers in Liepaja. In 75, I became the commander of the division of the missile ships of the Baltic Fleet. And after the division, I went to the 5 squadron: first by the chief of staff, and then by the commander.

The main problem of our fleet has always been called the lack of a serious repair base. But it was a growth problem. Our fleet developed at such a rapid pace that the development of the repair base, of course, did not keep up. Now it is difficult to imagine that the fleet in other years received ten nuclear submarines a year. When I spoke to the French admiral about this, he did not believe. They have only eight boats in stock, and here the industry gave us ten boats a year. These are only boats, but besides them we received several units of large surface ships, I'm not talking about boats, minesweepers. Of course, the repair base did not have time. We tried to repair the ships in the same factories where they were built. That is, the main direction was to build up fighting forces.

Speaking about the flourishing of our fleet, it is impossible not to say about Admiral Gorshkov, who commanded the Russian Navy during the decades in which this flourishing took place. Gorshkov is generally a man of legend, I think his name will forever be in the history of our fleet. He was an amazing man, he was a great fleet builder. Under him, the fleet became a truly ocean, world, nuclear missile fleet. It was not even Gorshkov himself who played a major role here, but the big three - Brezhnev, Grechko and Gorshkov. All three of them were well acquainted personally from the Great Patriotic War, from Novorossiysk. Three of them and created a fleet. It was a period comparable only with the times of Peter the Great, and in terms of the scale of naval construction, it was unprecedented in general. During the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, the Grechko fleet has evolved from a coastal into an oceanic, and into a nuclear missile, into a powerful fleet.

For example, only from 1969-th to 1979-th years in Severodvinsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Leningrad and Gorky, one hundred and seventy submarines were built, of which one hundred and twenty-two are atomic! The construction of large surface ships was resumed. Anti-submarine cruiser helicopter carriers, with fourteen helicopters on each. Heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers of the Kiev project, on which both helicopters and light attack aircraft of vertical take-off and landing were based. Most of the ships built at that time are anti-submarine ships, which more than one hundred and thirty units went into service. In the mid-sixties, the first ekranoplans were created, including the first experienced landing ground "Eaglet".
In general, the period from the mid-sixties to the early eighties became the “golden age” for our shipbuilding industry. Five hundred forty sea transport vessels were built, more than four hundred river transport and transport of mixed navigation, about one thousand seven hundred fishing vessels. And, of course, for the Navy - one thousand seven hundred warships, including combat and landing craft.

Marine personnel has grown, flotillas have been created, and finally operational squadrons have appeared in the oceans. No wonder even the academy was named after Grechko, he did for the fleet as much as he did, probably no one in history.

I remember there were exercises in the Baltic Fleet. I was then a captain of the 2 rank, before the captain of the 1 rank I still had to serve for three years. At the teachings attended Gorshkov himself. I had a good shot, shot down two rockets. Gorshkov turned to Mikhailov, commander of the Baltic Fleet: "Mikhailin, why does he have a captain of 2 rank? It is time to urgently give him a captain of 1 rank ..." I honestly did not pay much attention to this, I thought it was a joke. A couple of months later, during regular exercises, he arrived at our ship, I reported on the form and at the end, as it should be: "Captain of the second rank is such and such!" Here Gorshkov turns to Mikhailin: “I told you ...” Two days later I was assigned the captain of 1 rank.

I was lucky: I often swam with Gorshkov. In general, Gorshkov himself sailed a lot. When he was the commander-in-chief, he never flew into the fleet just for anything, always went to sea.

Like all sailors, I, of course, from a young age always dreamed of swimming on an aircraft carrier. And it so happened that I was on all of our aircraft carriers. Since these were the largest ships, the command post of my Mediterranean squadron was usually located on them. On the helicopter carriers "Moscow" and "Leningrad" I generally held my flag several times. I still remember that the relocation of the squadron headquarters from one helicopter carrier to another was seventy-two helicopters. It was necessary to translate all documents, all people with their belongings. And each officer had a lot of personal property - they lived on the ships for a year, each had everything they needed with them, right up to some basins.

When the Minsk passed from the Black Sea to the Pacific Fleet in 1979, for the first time in the history of the Soviet fleet our aircraft carrier formation temporarily appeared in the Mediterranean - two aircraft carriers at once in one battle formation.

I, of course, looked at the American fleet with strong envy during the last American operation in Iraq. Six aircraft carriers deployed in a single unit, ready for battle - this is the most impressive demonstration of US naval power. This has never happened before. Midway had fewer aircraft carrier Americans - four pieces ...

And then, in 1979, we had a mix of two aircraft carriers. We passed by two aircraft carriers, sixteen escort ships, two submarines and a detachment of support ships through the entire Mediterranean Sea to Gibraltar. Conducted a training air battle between the deck aircraft from different ships. In Gibraltar, my "Kiev" just pulled ahead, "Minsk" fell a little behind, and then we said goodbye to oncoming courses. Crews stood on decks, aircraft carriers passed in front of each other, and "Minsk" went around Africa to the Pacific Ocean. In such cases, the power of our fleet was particularly acute.

From the very beginning, we did not develop a catapult for normal aircraft carriers, this hampered the development of our aircraft carrier fleet. Therefore, they began to build an aircraft with a vertical takeoff of the Yak-38. On "Kiev", "Minsk", "Novorossiysk", "Baku" these planes were. As a combat aircraft, the Yak-38 was weaker than other aircraft, it flew to the maximum distance from the ship two hundred and twenty kilometers. He was armed with a NURS and a cannon. Many times I conducted exercises to achieve maximum departure to the blow. I had a Yak 52 on Kiev, but all of them together could not be lifted into the air at the same time, and it was even harder to land. It turned out to use up to twenty planes in the strike. In five to six hours, it took up to a hundred sorties. But the strength of such aircraft and their aircraft carriers were good anti-submarine capabilities. They were anti-submarine helicopters. And the defeat of the enemy's boats has always been imputed to us as one of the main tasks. Therefore, this stage of development of aircraft carriers, we had to go and have passed. But unequivocally, we needed and need modern powerful aircraft carriers in the full sense of the word. By the end of Soviet history, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov finally arrived at the fleet, and the Varyag began to be built. And then began the construction of the first nuclear aircraft carrier Ulyanovsk. By the 1990s, Ulyanovsk was already ready with 35%. That is, if it were not for the "reform", now we would have three or four nuclear aircraft carriers.
And now only “Peter the Great” remained of the nuclear cruisers. Nakhimov and Ushakov, the former Kirov and Kalinin, have not been walking for ten years, there is no money for repairs.

Now, after the publication of the new doctrine of fleet development, the press has seen a lot of attacks on Admiral Kuroedov, as the commander in chief. But the point is not in Kuroyedov. There would be money, the fleet would develop and build, and go to the ocean. No money, you have to take such "scanty" doctrines. Kuroyedov does not print money. It's not about Kuroyedov, but about the objective situation.

For example, one billion rubles is allocated for the fleet. Just think for it, in order to pay just the parking of the ships at the repair shops (not the repair itself, but only the parking) you need five hundred million. And on the other five hundred million - what will you do!

I will give a more specific example. A year and a half ago I was in the Black Sea Fleet. From the office of the commander we are looking at the Ordzhonikidze factory, there it is being repaired by the BOD Ochakov. I ask the commander when will you repair him? He replies: “We need one billion two hundred million for repairs. I was able to allocate fifteen million for this year. Think about it when I repair it ...” Kuroyedov also sits without money.

I recently talked a lot about our trip to the Indian Ocean. Like, here we are! They went out into the ocean, held exercises. The fleet is reborn! But the money was sent to him not from the budget of the Ministry of Defense. And they were singled out from some reserve fund of the president himself, apparently, as part of an election campaign. And now, we must wait for the next election in order to find money for the next long hike?

If we used to have ten nuclear submarines a year, then it was a different economy. The whole country was working for defense. And now the whole country rests on different Khodorkovsky. If these billions, instead of the pockets of the oligarchs, fell into the defense budget, of course, nuclear aircraft carriers would now have nuclear submarines as well.

I have a good friend, who in Soviet times was responsible for placing orders for the construction of new military equipment. During my tenure as chief of staff, we often saw each other. On my complaints about the financing, he showed me the state order for combat aircraft - it was in 1996, not 10, not 12 pieces! I ask him, but how many were there in Soviet times? He answers - more 1000 a year has happened!

I was on good terms with Defense Minister Sergeyev, and after my dismissal we somehow met him in one case. I remembered this story. And he shows me a plan for getting new combat equipment on the 1998 year, in which in the section "combat aircraft" there are three ... spare aircraft engines. Not airplanes or helicopters, but only three engines! That is, imagine the angle of incidence between ten submarines and a thousand planes per year and three aircraft engines.

This is a vertical fall into the abyss.

From the point of view of the aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov project is not bad. In 1996, the American admiral in the Mediterranean looked at my takeoff and landing at Kuznetsov. He was sure that the plane could not take off from the first and the third position - there is ninety-five meters of take-off and in addition a springboard. But I give the command to take off, the planes took off easily. So this is a good aircraft carrier, it’s bad for only one thing - a disgusting electromechanical installation. The largest ship of Russia, two and a half thousand people, more than fifty aircraft, but there is no movement.
Kuznetsov was built on a kink, in the 1989 year, it was the time of the decline of the Soviet Union. And Kuznetsov, figuratively speaking, had a “bad heart” from birth. From the very beginning, low-quality pipes were installed in its boilers. These tubes are constantly bursting, leaking. The power of the boilers was designed at 30 nodes, but the boilers were tested when they were delivered to the fleet by only a third of the capacity. After receiving this ship fleet all the tubes tried to replace. I personally sent a team to the Urals to make these tubes for us. Then with a sin in half in sovereign Ukraine in Nikolaev the pipes were bent appropriately. But still they continued to flow. Therefore, we could not bring boilers to full capacity. The boiler should give pressure to the atmospheric 105, and gave a maximum of 60. Should give a hundred tons of steam per hour to give, and gave forty.

What is a boiler accident? The water from the burst tube flows and extinguishes in the boiler of the nozzle. It is necessary to remove the boiler for repair. But in order to fulfill it, it is necessary to cool the boiler for twelve hours to a temperature of at least sixty to seventy degrees, so that a sailor in an asbestos suit could get into this boiler. Twelve more hours are needed to dismantle the reinforcement. Then it is necessary to water each tube from above to see which tube has burst and where. Then to seal this tube, check all the others, and only after all this put the boiler into operation. With the Stakhanov pace of the team’s work, when working for wear, this whole cycle takes at least three days. And these tubes flew literally one by one. During the 1996 campaign, only two boilers often worked for me, and how many times it happened when I stayed on one boiler at all, which is a speed of no more than four knots. At such a speed, the aircraft carrier does not obey the helm, it is blown away by the wind.

In 1996, the fleet was already in a terrible state. But it was necessary to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Russian fleet somehow. To commemorate the anniversary, we decided to make a trip to Kuznetsov in the Mediterranean Sea and back. Everyday business for Soviet times was now an extremely difficult and dangerous undertaking.

We went to sea on the word of honor. The fact is that during the previous release of Kuznetsov to the sea, it hit the storm, podzasolit the pipe, lost its course, and was nearly thrown onto the shore of Novaya Zemlya. The ship needed serious repairs, but Admiral Yerofeyev reported to me that the aircraft carrier was ready for the march. And we went to sea. Already there it became clear that two boilers were in general polluted - half-trained sailors took plain outboard water instead of distillate into the boilers. But in one way or another, we went to sea in January, pledged foreign naval attaches from all Mediterranean countries, England and Germany.

By the beginning of February it turned out definitively that the situation with the boilers is critical. Several times we faced a choice: to continue the dangerous march, or to return the faulty ship home. We decided to go further, to return - would mean to disgrace the entire three hundred year history of the Russian fleet. On the prestige of Russia thought. Although, now I understand that if we suffered a catastrophe, it would be a shame even greater and great tragedy. We were the closest to the tragedy, having risen with an official visit to Malta.

I remember now. We sit at the reception at the Minister of Defense of Malta in the palace. The liaison officer reports to me: "The wind increases up to thirty meters per second. Not a single boiler works at Kuznetsovo!" Immediately I estimate: the anchor chain is etched on us for a hundred meters, the length of the hull is three hundred and four meters, up to the rocks two hundred and fifty meters. The ship’s sailboat is huge, dragging it onto the rocks. I broke off negotiations with the minister, rushed to the heliport by car. By all flight rules, landing on the deck with such a wind is prohibited, but the helicopter pilots put me on the Kuznetsov deck. I already had a presentiment of the greatest shame in history. The largest ship of Russia in the year of the anniversary lies broken on the rocks of Malta. It would see on TV the whole world.

The stern was carried to the rocks, and we worked with the boiler with the mothers and prayers. As a result, one boiler started. He gives the power of a half turn node. This is not enough, but our approach to the rocks at least slowed down. Finally, another boiler was put into operation. Thank God and the sailors from the warhead 5, the disaster did not materialize. I do not know how I would later live, if I had killed Kuznetsov, after this it would be better not to live at all. With sin in half on two cauldrons, they slowly dragged themselves to Severodvinsk. I brought the ship home, returned to Moscow, and wrote a report on the dismissal.

Now he has undergone a major overhaul again, everything seems to be in order, but, as I understood, the pipes still flow sometimes, although, of course, not in the same way as before. He is prepared for the next year to march. Now they write a lot of horror in the newspapers about this ship, that it is semi-abandoned, nobody needs it. This is, in general, close to the truth. You can not imagine the parking of an aircraft carrier in the north. The aircraft carrier is tens of thousands of tons of steel, hundreds of thousands of square meters of decks, cabins, hangars, compartments. It’s simply unrealistic to warm it all up on your own in the conditions of northern winter! There, on the fourth to fifth deck, step on foot, knee-deep due to fogging. He's all frozen. Once in a lifetime, the Kuznetsov was more or less warmed up - in the Mediterranean. That's when he was a real handsome man. And so, he is constantly with frozen portholes. The aircraft carrier should not spend the winter in the north. He dies there.

In addition, the ship is idle. There is no combat work. But it serves almost two and a half thousand people. Two and a half thousand people freeze there in a limited space and do nothing, they are bored. There, every day someone from the crew hangs himself, they will cut each other, then they will be killed.
Why are American aircraft carriers always in excellent condition - they are all the time on the march, in combat service, the crews have no time to do anything. Kuznetsov should spend the winter in the Mediterranean, which was done in the same Soviet times, when all aircraft carriers were diverted to the warm seas for the winter. "Kiev" served the most because it was constantly in the Mediterranean Sea. He worked there, flew there, excellent commanders grew, people served and were proud of such a service.

If the "Admiral Kuznetsov" does not go out into the ocean, it will not last even five years. You can save it only with money for repairs and access to the sea.

In 1993, I attended the talks between the Ukrainian Prime Minister and our Chernomyrdin. We discussed the fate of the unfinished Soviet ships "Varyag" and "Ulyanovsk", which I already told you about. Ukrainians offered Russia to buy them back. Chernomyrdin asks me if we need Varyag. I say that, of course, need. And he answers me literally: "Yes, you, whatever you ask, you need everything. There is no money. You will manage!" As a result, Ukraine sold both ships for scrap. Varyag had a readiness of 73%. "Ulyanovsk" was cut into needles even earlier.

If we talk about the future of the fleet without illusions, it is clear that the fleet is dying. Ships are aging, scrapping, new ones do not arrive. The last built ships of the ocean zone are the Admiral Chabanenko and Peter the Great. They were supposed to surrender in the 1990 year, but we were able to complete them only in the 1998 year. Now dozens of ships are worth ten years in anticipation of repair, and they are gradually being written off. We lose the ocean zone. Any trifle will still exist for some time, because it is being repaired by shipyards and fleet workshops. But Russia will not have large ships in five years.
Now Kokoshin’s theory is once again very popular in the Ministry of Defense. At the dawn of Yeltsin's reforms, Kokoshin was the first deputy minister of defense. It was he who launched the "stories" on the topic that, they say, now, of course, the Armed Forces have a difficult situation, there is no money, we are not building anything. But all scientists are working hard, designing, and from the 2010 of the year Russia will begin to build everything massively and using ultramodern technologies. It was necessary to fool the head somehow. That Kokoshin and dodged. Where is this Kokoshin now?

But the same song sings today and this talker from the Ministry of Defense - Ivanov. "We are not doing anything now, but from the 2008 of the year we will begin mass production for the needs of the defense of the most modern technology!"

Why do people cheat? Tales of all this for fools. Nothing will start just from scratch. Everything can only go on. Why is China puffing up, puffing up, and he cannot build anything on the sea? Because it is impossible to start anything from scratch at sea, they are quietly groping on the basis of Soviet weapons, they create their own design bureau, and then the ocean fleet will not appear soon.

If the shipyards are empty, the equipment is aging and not being updated, the technology is lost, the teams disintegrate. As a result, construction cycles are lengthened, and ships are beginning to become obsolete before descending from the stocks.

Our shipbuilding is already outdated by technology. Our ships are now no one, except India and China, no longer buys, and they are already turning up the nose. What we create, they themselves can create, and what they need, we can no longer. They gradually leave us. I understand that we will have some kind of fleet, of course. Will, as a department. There will be all the attributes of the fleet, but there will not be in the ocean of the fleet.

Remember the guard campaign about how "the admirals sold aircraft carriers abroad." I myself participated in all this, I will say that this is complete nonsense. In 1993, the year began the talk that it would be necessary to sell Minsk and Novorossiysk. They stood at the coast for five years, reduced crews served them, fires constantly occurred, they could not get out to sea, they could not be restored either within their means or by time, and in general they were not combat-ready. They must be disposed of. But that was before the October events. The assistant said to me: "You will consider, the red ones will come, they will hang for such a thing." And then we still believed that the reds would come. Therefore, in order to prepare an alibi for yourself, I sent an official letter to the Minister of Defense and Chernomyrdin, the head of government. They approved this decision, the ships went for recycling. And then, like the majority of decommissioned ships, they were prepared for sale abroad. The South Korean company Yang-Distribution bought Novorossiysk for four and a half million, that is, one hundred and seventy dollars per ton of uncut metal. Now he is not worth the money, for a hundred dollars a ton is quite difficult to sell.

"Novorossiysk" they butchered, but suffered losses of five million, paid a bunch of fines. They asked us to sell them "Minsk", offered another two million. At first it was assumed that they would make him a floating hotel for the upcoming World Cup. But that year did not agree on the price. A year later, they still bought from us "Minsk" as an entertainment center in China. We decided to make him a huge museum of Soviet weapons in Guangzhou. When he was brought to China, I flew there with representatives of the TSSM. The show of the aircraft carrier was the saddest thing. But they showed us the projects, how they will make of it a real palace on the water. At first we didn’t even believe it.

But two years later I went there with my wife for the opening and was amazed. In the evening, “Minsk” stands all in the lights, as if the Day of the Fleet, the entire deck sparkles, the searchlights shine on the Chinese flag over it. The layout of the keel antenna rotates like a real one. Both I and my wife wept, seeing such beauty. In the morning we went to the ship itself to the museum.

On board fifteen thousand visitors. A ticket is twelve dollars for adults, six dollars for children. Just an amazing museum of Soviet weapons. I later brought them to our Central Naval Museum, to the museums of the Russian army and astronautics. For a fee, they then did thematic exhibitions at Minsk.

The museum is beautiful. They kept everything on it, as it was when he was still in the Mediterranean Sea. Soviet arms were put there, this is a real glorification of Soviet weapons.

The places are full, they have lifted everything that is below the deck, huge spaces were freed there, even the football field was laid. There is a concert hall in the hangar, where the Belarusian ensemble from Minsk performed at the opening.

In the mess room - a cafe. I went there. Looked at the menu, there is an admiral's lunch, an officer's and a sailor's lunch. I ordered a sailor's lunch. They bring me salad, borsch, rice with meat sauce. And in the basket bring bread - black, like shoe polish. I did not understand, I asked the local authorities why the bread is so black. And he answers me that the Russians gave them the standard ship menu, and they decided to do everything exactly as in this menu. So the Chinese have read black bread in the menu, and for a long time they thought how to make bread black. In the end, it just painted.

After this museum there was a mixed feeling of pride in Soviet power and wild longing for the current collapse.

The latest "salvos" of the cold war of the fleets of the twentieth century

The events and operations of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, which will be discussed below, did not occur by chance. They were preceded, in turn, by events in the country and their consequences related to the violation of the state border and the flight from the Baltic Sea through the entire western space of the Union (in 1987) to the German aerial adventurer Rust, who landed his small Sesna sport airplane in Moscow

Today it is known that this “trick” of Rust was from the same category of the notorious CIA operations of the USA in “probing” the strength of the air borders of the Soviet Union. And although the plane of this Rust was discovered by our air defense weapons, the duty link of the Baltic District fighter jets of the Baltic District was lifted into the air and the intruder was intercepted by the intruders and could be shot down only by jets of hot gases of jet engines of their fighters. the pilots (they did not receive the order to destroy the intruder) —but in vain, there was no need to pity. Everything that followed Rust's trick followed in the Armed Forces today is well known. Its consequences as a result had a negative impact on the entire military department. This really turned into frantic accusations by government agencies and a whole gang of already bit the bit of the unlimited “freedom of speech” of some anti-army media commanders of the Armed Forces of “losing their watchfulness”, “general's irresponsibility”, etc., and also gave rise to the traitor Gorbachev, who had already begun to ruin the country. with military leaders he dislikes right up to the Minister of Defense.

The command of all levels of the country's Air Defense Forces, which lost a significant number of experienced and honored commanders, who were dismissed from their posts and who were prematurely dismissed from military service, suffered especially great personnel damage.

Therefore, after Rust, everywhere in the Armed Forces from the side of the political leadership, the government implanted some kind of “guilt” for what happened and all military leaders were instructed to increase “responsibility”, “vigilance” and so on. The situation in the Armed Forces was tense, which in the first place reflected on the command of the types and types of the Armed Forces, districts, fleets and associations of troops and fleet.

Secondly, another event from the same category of the need to strengthen “vigilance”, preceding the above-mentioned events of 1988 of the year and affecting the prestige and authority of the Black Sea Fleet, occurred in 1987 in the waters of our Black Sea. Then the two 6 Navy warships of the US Navy passed the Black Sea straits and began to "roam" across the Black Sea.

In those years, American ships came to visit us two or three times a year, and they didn’t seem to promise anything extraordinary at the time (today the Americans, one might say, do not get out of the Black Sea; various kinds of naval exercises Black Sea states, including “Nezalezhnoy” of Ukraine, conducted over the past 10-12 years more than a dozen). However, after wandering for some time in the western part of the Black Sea, the American ships rushed to the southern tip of the Crimean peninsula and, without bending around our borders (the width of the 12 miles, or about 22 km.), Went through them and proceeded to Caucasian coast. This is an elementary, and at the same time causing, violation of international canons and rules of navigation and the laws that are well known to all seafarers, which regulate the regime of the maritime state border of the Soviet Union. Our tracking ships accompanied the American ships and warned them about the violation of our terrorists. But the Americans did not respond to these warnings, they simply did not care about them. When the Americans were officially lodged with claims of violation of our terror waters (actually invading them), the Americans replied that they had not violated anything, but used the “right of peaceful passage” through the terror waters of another state, going to another area of ​​the Black Sea.

In general, then this trick came to the Americans, as they say, with hands without consequences. However, according to the prestige of the Black Sea Fleet, our diplomacy and the prestige of the country as a whole, a contempt has been struck (if not spittle).

To readers unfamiliar with certain maritime orders, I explain that “the right of innocent passage” does exist in international navigation laws, is generally recognized in world maritime practice and is valid for certain mostly torrential zones of the World Ocean. In addition, the law and zones of such passage (areas, straits, bays, etc.) are regulated and determined by the laws on the protection of the state borders of specific states. In the Soviet Union, the “right of innocent passage” was established by such law only for two sections of our sea areas: on the Baltic Sea (the pouring zone of the islands of Saarem and Hium) and the Pacific Theater (the zone of the Kuril Ridge). In the Black Sea, in none of its areas, “the right of innocent passage” for foreign ships was provided by Union legislation. The protection of the state border at sea was carried out in accordance with the rules and regulations that were in force at that time.

The command of the Black Sea Fleet learned in advance about the upcoming 1988 of the new voyage of the American ships of the cruiser URO "Yorktown" and the destroyer URO "Caron" in the Black Sea in February (fleet intelligence tracked all the actions of the US Navy 6).

Considering, as I explained above, the situation in the Armed Forces after Rust’s “trick”, we naturally couldn’t allow the new provocation of the Americans to violate our maritime borders, if they again try to repeat their previous demarche or any other unfriendly actions. with the "penetration" of the tribunal of the Soviet Union, passed for them with impunity. Therefore, before the arrival of American ships in the Black Sea, the fleet headquarters planned to track and counteract them in the event of their attempts to penetrate our thermal waters: two ships were allocated for tracking, the selfless watchdog (1135) and CKR-6 (tracking 35), the commander of this ship group was appointed Captain 2 of rank Mikheev Nikolai Petrovich, the Chief of Staff of the 70 Brigade of the 30 Division of anti-submarine ships of the Black Sea Fleet. With the commanders of the ships and the commander of the ship group was instructed on the plan of the operation with the loss of all actions on the maps and maneuverable tablets. Our proposals and plan of operation Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Fleet Admiral Chernavin V.N. approved.

The plan of operation provided for the following. By the exit of American ships into the Black Sea (when they enter the straits, it will be known) our ships meet them in the Bosphorus area and begin tracking and tracking them during the time the Americans are in the Black Sea. I instructed the group commander, after meeting with the Americans, to greet them with our arrival in our Black Sea (that is, not to forget our word in the greeting) and to say that, they say, we will swim with them. It was expected that the American ships, as usual, would proceed first along the western coast of the Black Sea, “run” into the thermal waters of Bulgaria, Romania (they used to do this before), and then they will shift to the eastern part to our shores. Well, they will probably try to invade our tervods, as they did last time, in the southern tip of the Crimean peninsula, where the borders of our tervods are represented by a triangle with apex advanced to the south. Americans most likely will not go around this triangle again, but will go through the terrorists. More and places suitable for such a violation of the territory, disguised as a “peaceful passage”, simply do not exist on the Black Sea theater. And it was here that the main phase of the whole operation should have happened, namely the prevention or ousting of American ships from our landing waters.

Our ships in the operation were distributed as follows: CRE "Selfless", as a larger ship in terms of displacement, had to accompany and oppose the cruiser "Yorktown", and "CKR-6" (in general, a small displacement and size ship) - the destroyer " Caron. Specific instructions were given to the commander of the ship group and the ship commanders: as soon as it turns out that the Americans intend to proceed to our terrorists, our ships take a position from the left side of the American ships (that is, from our coast) and warn them that the course of their ships leads to our terrorists, which is unacceptable; further, if the Americans do not heed this warning, with the entrance of them into the waterslines, make every our ship "bulk" on the correspondingly followed by each American ships. What is "bulk"? This is not a ram in the full sense of this concept, but an approach at a speed parallel to the board of the object being pushed out and, as it were, a “polite” repulsion with a lapel on the course maintained by it. Well, and "politeness", - well, how come.

It should be clarified here that the position of our ships from the left side of the escorted ship obviously made our ships guilty of ship collisions if they occur (according to the international rules of joint navigation, the ship from the starboard side is always right). But we could not be to the right of the Americans, since in this case our ships would “drive” the Americans into our waters, whereas, on the contrary, we ought to force the Americans out of the waters to the side of the so-called neutral, more correct international waters.
The commanders understood their tasks, especially since their actions to occupy the positions of repression and "bulk" on the escorted ships were lost on maps and maneuverable tablets. The clarity was complete, and I was sure that they would complete their tasks. So it happened.

Our ships took American ships for tracking immediately after they left the Bosphorus. They greeted them and warned that they would swim with them together, they would make them a “company” in the Black Sea. The Americans responded that they did not seem to need such our attention and support. When I received these first reports (communication with the ships was maintained continuous online), I told Mikheev: “Tell the Americans: although they, as they believe, do not need our escort, they still have to swim together. They are our guests, and according to the laws of Russian hospitality, we have not accepted guests to be ignored, but what if something happens to them. ” Mikheev conveyed all this.

Predictably, the American ships first moved towards Bulgaria, unceremoniously entered its tervods and followed them, as if nothing had happened, along the coast of Bulgaria, although no “peaceful passage” was required there, or rather it simply could not be. Since the Bulgarian and Romanian Navy was part of the United Black Sea Fleet of ATS countries, which was operated by our Black Sea Fleet headquarters, at its suggestion from the Bulgarians, two warships (a sentryman and a minesweeper) were also assigned to monitor US ships in the operational zone of their fleet. This group was commanded by captain 2 of the rank of Spartak Djurov (son of Bulgarian Defense Minister Djurov, a graduate of our VVMU named after Frunze). Well, this picture turned out: the American ships are brazenly marching in the Bulgarian Tervods, followed by the Bulgarian ships in the Tervods, our ships also accompany the Americans, but seaward, outside the border of Bulgaria, without violating them. Spartak Djurov asks for Mikheev (the Bulgarian and our ship commanders almost all knew each other personally): “What to do? Will you help us? The Americans are brazenly violating our terrorists. ” I respond to Mikheev on his report: “Tell Spartak that we cannot enter peace waters in terror waters of even friendly Bulgaria. He himself must act in accordance with the instructions he received from the command of the fleet. Let him try to oust the Americans from the waters. ” But Djurov did not dare to ram and pile (or his command did not allow him to do it)

The Americans, meanwhile, passed through the terrorwaters of Bulgaria and invaded the terrorists of Romania. But there were no Romanian ships there (the command of the Romanian fleet even then ignored all our instructions and suggestions). Then the American ships turned away to the east, went to the 40-45 area miles south-south-east of Sevastopol and began there some strange maneuvers. Either they practiced joint navigation, or they depicted working with a submarine (but where did the foreign boat come from in the Black Sea?). In addition, our ships confirmed that the boat "under the Americans" no. Most likely, they carried out a shift or a tab on our communication cable routes of special equipment for information retrieval. Spinning American ships in the area for more than two days. Then they crossed over and maneuvered directly in the sea zone adjacent to Sevastopol outside our watersheds.

February 12 I was in the fleet's command post (fleet commander Admiral M. N. Chronopulo flew away on business). At about 10 hours, Mikheev received a report: “The American ships lay down on the course 90 °, which leads to our terrorists, the speed of 14 nodes. The distance to the border is 14 miles ”(about 26 km.). Okay, I think - before the tervod another hour of travel, we will wait, let them go. I give orders to the ML of the fleet: “Tell Mikheev: continue tracking.” Half an hour later the following report: “Ships are going the same course and speed. Until the trial 7 miles. Again, what will they do next: will they enter tervody or turn away at the last moment, “scaring” us? I remember that I myself in the Mediterranean Sea “sheltered” the ships of the squadron from the wind and the storm wave in the semi-cableway from the border of the water lead (width 6 miles) of the Greek island of Crete (its mountains weakened the force of the wind). And did not think that we are breaking something. And the Americans could also approach the border of the water and then turn away without disturbing anything. The following report comes in: "The range of 2 miles is up to the border". Now I’m taking Mikheev to contact me personally: “Warn the Americans: your course leads to the terrorist waters of the Soviet Union, the violation of which is unacceptable.” Mikheev reports: “I passed. Answer that they do not violate. Follow the same course and speed. " Again I give an order to Mikheev: “Warn Americans again: the violation of the terrorist waters of the Soviet Union is unacceptable. I have an order to force you out, right down to a pile and a ram. And broadcast all this in plain language in Russian and in English. ” Mikheev again reports: “I passed. Repeat that they do not break anything. The course and speed are the same. ” Then I order Mikheev: "Take positions for repression."

We instructed to ensure that the bulk was more rigid and would cause more significant damage to American ships, etch the right anchors and hold them in a suspended form on the anchor chains under the tailgate). So a high forecastle SPR of the “Selfless”, and even anchor dangling to the right could thoroughly break the board and all that would fall under the pile aboard the ship being driven out of its course. Mikheev continues to report: “Before the XTUMX ..., 5 ..., 3 cable runs. Ships positions for bulk occupied. " The following report: "American ships entered the tervody". To clarify the situation, I am requesting the Fleet Informational Post (BIP) of the fleet: “To report the exact location data of all ships”. I get a BIP report: "1 miles, 11 cable from the coastline." So, really the Americans still got into our terrorists. I order Mikheev: "Act on the plan of the operation." He replies: “Got it.” Both of our ships began maneuvering to oust or “pile” on American ships.

Then I received reports only on the maneuvering of the "Selfless" TFR. The maneuvering of the TFR-6 controlled and received reports from its commander Mikheev.

I remember it was almost exactly in the 11.00 hour. (maybe in 11.01 - 11.02), Mikheev reports: “I got close to the cruiser to 100 meters” ... and then reported every 10 meters.

Sailors imagine how difficult and dangerous it is to perform such maneuvers: a huge cruiser with a displacement of 10000 tons and a guard with a displacement of 3000 tons “moor” to it on the move, while on the other “flank” against a destroyer with a displacement of almost 8000 tons there is a very small guard with a displacement of only 1500 tons.

Imagine: put the destroyer abruptly “left to the ship” at the moment of approaching close to our watchdog — and what will happen to our ship? Would not turn over - and this can be! Especially since the American ship will still be right in such a collision. So, the commanders of our ships had to perform a difficult and dangerous task.

Mikheev reports: "10 meters." And immediately: “I ask the“ good ”to act!”. Although he had already received all the orders, but apparently he decided to insure himself, and he shouldn’t blame him for this: what if the situation changed, besides, all the negotiations are recorded on the air (and the Americans are recording them). I tell him once again: “Act on the plan of the operation!”.

And then there was silence. It is necessary to clarify that the situation in the fleet's command gear is as follows: I am directly in touch with Mikheev, the fleet OD in my hands with the handset of the ZAS apparatus in parallel all actions, orders, reports are transmitted to the Navy Central Operations Center, from there all of this is transmitted to the TsKP Armed Forces. In general, the situation on the CP fleet tense. The whole calculation of the fleet KP in work.

I follow the stopwatch - I spotted Mikheev with my last order: the hand ran a minute, two, three ... Silence. I do not ask, I understand what is happening now on the ships: one thing is briefing and losing on maneuverable tablets, and another thing is how things will turn out in reality. I can clearly imagine how the high “forecastless” forecastle, together with the hung anchor, tears the side and the massive nasal superstructure with the bridge of the American cruiser “Yorktown” (the superstructure of this cruiser is designed almost together with the ship's side). But what will happen to our ship from such mutual

“Kisses”? And what happens in the second pair of this marine “bullfight” between the CKR-86 and the destroyer Caron? Doubts, the unknown. All this goes through my mind until there are no reports on the situation.

And suddenly I hear Mikheev’s completely calm voice: “Comrade Admiral! Walked on the left side of the cruiser. At his stern anchor broke the launcher of spear missiles. Two broken missiles fell out of launch canisters. Demolished all of the left side rail. Smashed commander boat. Here and there they tore the board and the side lining of the nose superstructure. Our anchor came off and drowned. ” And Mikheyev reports all this quite calmly, as if when drawing such episodes on maps. I ask: "What are the Americans doing?". Answers: “They played an emergency alarm. An emergency party in protective suits is watering the Harpoon launcher from hoses. “Are the rockets burning?” I ask. "It seems not fire and smoke is not visible." After that, Mikheev reports for "TFR-6":

“I passed along the destroyer's left side, the rail was cut down, the boat was broken. Breakthrough plating board. Ship anchor survived. But the American ships continued their journey with the same course and speed. ” I give the command to Mikheev: “Execute the repeated tack”. Our ships began to maneuver for re-"bulk."

After some time, I receive a report from Mikheev: "The destroyer Caron turned away from the course and follows me directly, the bearing does not change." Seafarers understand what the "bearing does not change" means - that is, it goes to a collision (the destroyer was closer to the coast relative to the cruiser). I say to Mikheev: “Go to the starboard side of the cruiser and hide behind it. Let "Caron" ram him ". Mikheev and the commander of the "Selfless" did so.

After that, the American ships again lay on the course of 90 °, the course of 14 knots, soon came out of the water leads (crossed them) and went further east. We didn’t manage to perform the repeated “bulk”. Our ships continued tracking the Americans.

Then came the order with the TsKP Navy: "The Minister of Defense ordered to sort out and report in detail about this incident" (our naval wits later refined themselves: to report on the list of officials to be removed from their posts and to be demoted). We have submitted a detailed report on the instance, how it all happened. Just a couple of hours later, another order was received from the Navy TsKP: “The Minister of Defense ordered the submission of those who distinguished themselves to be rewarded” (our wits were found here: the list of officials for rejection was replaced by the list of persons involved in the award ceremony). Well, it seemed that everyone was relieved from the heart, the tension subsided, we all seemed to have calmed down with the calculation of the fleet's KP.

Getting dark. I receive a report from Mikheev: "Fuel will be enough until the morning, but it would be better to change us now." We had ships in reserve in readiness, and I gave the order to replace the ship group of Mikheyev, so that the Americans would not be tempted to inflict any provocation in the order of “blood feud” for their sealed “honor” at night. Just the next day, the Americans, before reaching our Caucasian sea areas, moved to the exit from the Black Sea. Again, under the vigilant control of the new ship group of our ships. A day later, the "battered" ships of the gallant 6 of the US Navy fleet left the Black Sea that was inhospitable for them on this voyage.

This event was published in brief in print. Citizens received many letters from all over the Soviet Union in the name of the command and the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet with the approval of our actions, thanks to which a good lesson was taught to the Americans. For some reason, I was with the Bogdashin VP (Commander of the Selfless One) approx. At the plenum of the Crimean Regional Committee of the CPSU unanimously elected to the XIX Party Conference (in addition to the already elected Commander and Member of the Armed Forces of the Navy). At the conference, I had to repeatedly tell about the successful "ram" battles of the Black Sea.

A kind of continuation of this story got a few years. In 1990, Admiral Kelso, Chief of Staff of the US Navy, arrived in the Soviet Union on an official visit (US Navy Commander in Chief). In 1988, he commanded the US Navy's 6 Fleet in the Mediterranean. After Moscow, according to the visit plan, he visited Leningrad. At that time I was in command of the Leningrad naval base, so I had to take Admiral Kelso on the naval part of the protocol of the visit. Well, of course, meetings, visits to Kronstadt, sightseeing, receptions. As the completion of the marine part of his visit - dinner. After dinner we went to the sauna. We remembered 1988's “ram-and-ram” story with ships in the Black Sea. And Admiral Kelso confirmed that he had an official order to repeat this demonstrative “peaceful passage” through our ships, which was made in 6, by the ships of the US Navy 1987. At the same time, he confidentially told me that, taking into account the sharp reaction of the political and military leadership of the Soviet Union to the previous breakdown of the ships in the Black Sea with its ships, he told his command about the undesirability to repeat such demarches. Russian will not tolerate this kind of American naval cowboy poshiba antics, and all can end up dysfunctional for the prestige of the United States. But he received a categorical order: to break again. Well, everything happened as he foresaw. By the way, he told me that the commander of the cruiser "Yorktown" was removed from his post because his ship was hit, damaged, and he could not "give back" to the Soviet ship (!). Then we remembered service in the Mediterranean, where both had to come into contact at different, if I may say so, the frontiers of the Cold War "front" of our fleets.

November 10.12.2009, XNUMX

Comments

[Vladimirets]

Good article, in half with pride and longing. True, from the same 2009 something has changed in the world.

[ava09]

Quote: Vladimirets

Good article, in half with pride and longing

In half because of pride in the Soviet Navy, and longing for the current position of the fleet. As long as the economy of the "RF" and (this is exactly how) is controlled by the Federal Reserve System and it is being controlled because of a "puddle", it is difficult to count on cardinal changes. For the shipbuilding industry, a "breakthrough" today is the simultaneous delivery of TWO BGCs, although the duration of their construction is not modestly indicated, and the commissioning will be in the future ... BGK is a LARGE Hydrographic boat. KATER - "breakthrough". If it is a breakthrough, then an abscess breakthrough. In this regard, the "arrest" of Ulyukaev as a harbinger of a change at least of the economic bloc of the government, a real breakthrough.

[Vladimirets]

Quote: ava09

In half, because pride in the Soviet Navy, and longing for the current position of the fleet.

Exactly.

Quote: ava09

For the shipbuilding industry, a "breakthrough" today is the simultaneous delivery of TWO BGCs, although the duration of their construction is not modestly indicated, and the commissioning will be in the future ... BGK is a LARGE Hydrographic boat. KATER - "breakthrough".

Something skidded you, but they don’t hand over other ships?

[the most important]

Quote: Vladimirets

True, from the same 2009 something has changed in the world.

Here are just big ships no longer .... Sorry.

[aszzz888]

The large nuclear-powered reconnaissance ship "Ural", and this is a huge ship of larger displacement,

It was a good ship. This year they began to "saw" it at one of the factories of the Far East.
An article-story is always read well from a direct participant in the events, it is interesting that the facts are not fictional, i.e. not from OBS. (one grandmother said). +.

[Serg65]

The article put a plus. because Selivanov as a sailor and commander from God.

I remember when I was a division commander in the Baltic Fleet we conducted exercises. At Cape Taran, in my detachment, twelve missiles were launched simultaneously from different directions. Part of the missiles was launched at us from a submarine, and at the same time missile boats attacked us from different sides. We then shot down nine missiles on our own.

Here, Valentin Yegorovich tactfully keeps silent about the introductory Commander-in-Chief Gorshkov, who plunged the participants in the training into a short shock state. The fact is that, according to the conditions of the exercises, two ships of the 128th BrRK were supposed to repel this attack, but Gorshkov gave a new introduction - missiles must go through the center of the warrant of the ships (128 and 76 brigades) i.e. All ships must participate in the reflection of the attack !!!!

The same are carriers that serve for 6-8 months in the ocean. We constantly monitored them and sometimes recorded what they were doing on 250 sorties per day!

The US Navy included the Incheon airborne assault ship, an interesting, clumsy, unusual vessel, outwardly reminiscent of an unsuccessfully transformed transformer made in cloudless Mongolia. But he ran briskly and maneuvered dashingly for all his mass. In the mid-80s, the fate of the "Ferocious" TFR fell to follow him, it is quite difficult to follow the AUG or ADG, the signalmen after an hour of the watch were already shedding tears from eye strain, and now one of the signalmen, forgetting from excitement and fatigue, the correct name of this transformer issued this tirade "our big horse-radish, which is on the starboard side, is changing bearing, dragging." Thanks to this sailor, the nickname "OUR FUCK" stuck to LPH-12 "Inchon" for a long time

[avt]

Quote: Serg65

The article put a plus.

Very informative, especially when such slippery ...... small details of big events. It’s always very good, oh, very interesting to know them from the direct participants in the events. Such subjective coverage is very interesting. I read it with great pleasure!

[Serg65]

Quote: avt

Such subjective coverage is very interesting.

Welcome Shark Somewhere comrade Selivanov is certainly cunning. but he’s admiral ... And there is something to tell him ... there will be enough for a couple of three thick books ... including about the undercover fight within the walls of the Kremlin during the boxing ring between "Selfless" and "Yorktown"

[avt]

Quote: Serg65

Welcome Shark

Well, I knowingly pointed

Quote: avt

Such subjective lighting

[Serg65]

Quote from rudolf

There are no emotions anymore, everything burned out.

Well Rudolph. something covered you thoroughly ..... as one of my commanders used to say .... do not despair buddy, everything will be fine! Or everything will be bad - but that's another story! above the nose is subfused!

[Serg65]

Quote from rudolf

At first I thought that it was you, Sergey, who published an interview with Selivanov here

Honestly. I’ve probably been trying to write about 5 for half a year, but something will come of the muse. then it’ll be washed off somewhere .... I do not want to write banal statistics

[midshipman]

I had occasion to meet with Valentin Yegorovich and the Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy. The enterprises of my State Institution of the USSR Ministry of Radio Industry created radio navigation systems: Route, Tropic, Mars-75. For ships and submarines, an EV system, navigation receivers and landing systems for aircraft carrying ships were created. He himself repeatedly went on campaigns on these ships, was a member of the State Commissions for their acceptance into service and supply of the country's Navy. Valentin Yegorovich writes in an article about a sailor's lunch. And I had with Marshal E.Ya. Savitsky to dine with the Commander of the Black Sea Fleet. The navy pasta was served for the second. Each macaroni was stuffed with meat. Is that how you cook? I was also a lieutenant at the age of 18, and I spent my practice as a cadet at the "Ural" minefield in 1956. But then he became Chief. military and military equipment designer, scientist and industry leader. Now the Scientific Secretary of one research institute, Head of the Department at SUAI. Just like Valentin Yegorovich published in "VO" an article "The history of my one order". But this article is about aviation work.
The fleet should develop, we give suggestions for improving its facilities. Their defense industry, I think it will. I have the honor.

[trantor]

And now let someone try to say that the USSR was economically insolvent.
To refute, it’s enough that in the same period when all this was being built, it flew, sailed, was driven underground, life in the country was constantly improving.

[pts-m]

After reading the article, the proverb immediately comes to mind ... you know less, sleep better ... But you can oversleep everything and everyone. Interestingly, our liberals from the government read VO or report to them in pink. I have nothing more to say as an ordinary ordinary amateur.

[Operator]

A strange article by an admiral who has never participated in a single naval battle, and most of the service who played in the Cossacks-robbers with the Americans in the Mediterranean pool under the gun of NATO tactical aircraft.

Window dressing is the main disease of the Russian fleet for the last 111 years.

[FEDY]

mdaaa .... heavy. article.,

[sailor52]

Quote: Operator

A strange article by an admiral who has never participated in a single naval battle, and most of the service who played in the Cossacks-robbers with the Americans in the Mediterranean pool under the gun of NATO tactical aircraft.

Are you implying that you have a more heroic biography?
In which, let me ask, the sea battle you personally participated in?

[Veteran]

Guys, I ask you to take into account that the article, although published in 2009, was made on the basis of an interview given by Selivanov at the end of 2003 (as indicated by his mention in the text about "Severodvinsk" - "he is 10 years old"). You yourself understand that over 13 years the attitude towards the fleet has changed radically, but of course, great results cannot be achieved right away, too inert, resource-intensive and time-consuming this business is restoration of the fleet, moreover, on a new basis and with "steps" from " partners ".
And as part of the 5th squadron, we went even under E. Volobuev. and Akimov V.I.

[Buffet]

Brevity is the soul of wit. They would tell in several parts. Nobody wants to read such great articles ...

[Radical]

Quote: Operator

A strange article by an admiral who has never participated in a single naval battle, and most of the service who played in the Cossacks-robbers with the Americans in the Mediterranean pool under the gun of NATO tactical aircraft.

Window dressing is the main disease of the Russian fleet for the last 111 years.

You are probably at least a descendant of Admiral Ushakov, or Nakhimov, and maybe all together!

[Volzhanin]

I would like to hope that the filthy aphid of humpback labeled will die the most painful death that you can imagine. And the bastard ebn burns in hell, vile offspring. And these geeks themselves and their vile offspring and accomplices will be damned for centuries!
It’s a pity that neither one nor the other can be hung on a yoke!

[Captain Nemo]

Komunyaki, of course, creatures, but reading such memories you involuntarily think, -What power was blown !!!!