German Navy on the Black Sea
On issues of military construction fleet any self-respecting country, and not a banana republic, is always especially scrupulous, with an eye to a potential adversary and long-term tasks for him. And this process is very slow and costly. The war of 08.08.08, reunification with the Crimea, the operation of the air forces in Syria, and the aggravation of relations with Ukraine and Turkey clearly emphasized the importance of the Black Sea Fleet for protecting and promoting Russia's interests in the region of its responsibility. Frankly, all the Black Sea countries, without exception, are currently in the camp of our opponents, in one way or another they belong to the North Atlantic Alliance, and, which is more dangerous in the near and medium term, there is a growing tendency to strengthen their cooperation on the anti-Russian political platform.
After 01.09.1939, Hitler's Germany found itself in a similar situation. The only ally is Italy. The Navy is in the process of fulfilling a long-term construction plan after its defeat in the First World War. Access to the ocean is blocked by the Anglo-French fleet.
We have the only ally in Europe - Belarus. Of the forty-five warships of the Black Sea Fleet, thirty-three were built in the USSR and in the last two years only five new combat units of not the largest displacement were received. In case of conflict, the Black Sea straits will be securely locked.
The fleet of Germany in the twentieth century has repeatedly demonstrated the possibility of waging an unreliable war at sea with the enemy's many times superior forces. And now the German Navy is a well-balanced in composition and optimally sharpened to perform tasks as part of the combined allied forces both in the theater of operations and outside of NATO’s responsibility.
The analogies do not end there. The coastline and sea border of Germany are comparable in length with those of Russia on the Black and Azov Seas, only before 2014, they had an excess in absolute terms, and after the annexation of the Crimea they were somewhat inferior. There are also difficulties: the coastline of Germany is divided into two regions by the Jutland peninsula, and the Crimea peninsula has no land connection with mainland Russia. And even, oddly enough, the total displacement of the warships of the Black Sea Fleet differs from the same indicator of the German Navy by no more than 10%.
Of course, it is incorrect to directly compare the German Navy and the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation; nevertheless, such an analysis could be taken to eliminate shortcomings from the past and outline the correct development trends for the future.
Ship composition
If you count the number of projects of combat ships of the German fleet today, it will not exceed nine. The minesweepers of the Ensdorf and Kulmbach types before the modernization were represented by the single type Hameln (project 343), built in 1989 — 1991. The third type, “Frankenthal” (322 project), was built in 1992 — 1998 as minesweepers — miners looking for (in hull, power plant, artillery and anti-aircraft armament are almost of the same type as Hamel’s minesweepers). Such longevity and consistency of mine-sweeping forces speaks of the initial deep and careful study of the ship’s design and the possibilities laid down for further upgrades, which still allow it to meet the requirements of the times. Brandenburg frigates (project 123) could be combined with earlier types of Bremen (project 122). They are related by the same power plant and armament, but an increase in the size of the hull and the replacement of the strike complex of anti-ship missiles on the more modern Brandenburg determined their selection as a separate project.
In the Black Sea Fleet, I counted 17 projects of warships, and this is without taking into account the various "A", "B", "M", "E" and other differences. Five submarines officially enrolled in the Black Sea Fleet belong to three different projects, whereas in Germany all six submarines of the same project. In one part of the Black Sea Fleet, three completely different projects of rocket ships are combined (1239 Ave., 12341 Ave., 21631 Ave.) With two combat units each. Do not forget, and five missile boats project 12411. But the German Navy modestly performs similar tasks with ten rocket boats of the same type "Cheetah". There is a lot to say about the possible flexibility of management, the specifics of the tasks to be solved, optimization of the forces, versatility and other similar arguments, but the economic component and logistics of maintenance, maintenance, repair, training and combat training of the crews of such various ships lays an unbearable burden on the fleet infrastructure and industry countries, or region, if you like.
The events in Syria posed the question squarely before the amphibious airborne forces of the Black Sea Fleet and the country's fleet as a whole. For the delivery of equipment, ammunition, and supplies, the capabilities of the seven large landing ships of the Black Sea Fleet were clearly not enough. Both the Baltic and the North helped, and yet they had to buy the motley ships of the civil fleet on the side. It should be noted that currently there are no tank landing ships in the German navy, which, in essence, are our paratroopers of the 1171 and 775 projects. There are plans to build a pair of universal amphibious ships with a displacement of three times more than any of the Black Sea and with the presence of transport-assault helicopters. The concept of the Cold War, which meant landing on an unequipped coast to a battalion of marines directly from ships, was somewhat outdated. The ships of the 1171 project, each of which is already over forty years old, are morally and physically outdated. More recent, the project 775, to be replaced simply because they were built in the Polish People's Republic, and their maintenance and repair are difficult. Let the opponents answer honestly: how many ships of Soviet construction and the German Democratic Republic remain in the German Navy?
And now - the most interesting! Before the Admiral Grigorovich escort ship arriving in the Black Sea, all ships of the Black Sea Fleet of the far sea zone have thirty-five years of service astern during not the most favorable periods for both the country and the fleet. Five ships belong to four completely different projects, in other words, the core of the fleet is assembled with the world on a string. This has never happened and should never be!
The “Moscow” missile cruiser has no place in the Black Sea, well, aircraft carriers do not enter here! And there are no real opponents in the Black Sea countries! “Donald Cook” comes to visit - Su-34 and coastal anti-ship complexes will manage. But in conjunction with the "Varyag" for example, the ship's shock group would look better on the Pacific Ocean.
Large anti-submarine ships "Kerch" and "Sharp-witted" (in the fleet of 1974 and 1969, respectively) are generally the only representatives of their projects not only in the Black Sea Fleet, but also in the country. Two “singing frigates” at the age of 35 will finally await replacement in the form of an admiral's series of guard for the Black Sea.
In fairness, I would like to note that the German Bremen frigates are the same age as our Ladny and Pytlivy patrols, and from 2017 will be gradually replaced by the F125 Baden-Wurttemberg frigates, which are twice as high as Admiral Grigorovich in displacement. .
Guns and Rockets
Information for consideration: the entire German modern fleet is equipped with weapons of only two calibers. These are the 76-mm / 62 single-barrel “MTO Melara” Mk-75 gun mount and the 27-mm MLG 27 automatic cannon. And only on the newest ships it is planned to return the guns in caliber to 127-mm.
And now we list only the calibers of the Black Sea ships: 130 mm (one gun installation for the entire fleet); 100 mm (four gun installations); 76,2 mm; 57 mm; 30 mm. I will not consider firing guns, which are also listed in the table of artillery weapons of some ships, probably to intimidate Somali pirates. If the thoughts of Russian and German gunsmith designers practically coincide in the need to have 27-30 mm caliber guns on each ship, then why hasn’t anyone stopped the Russians' wild imagination in the four remaining calibers? This diversity was in the second Pacific squadron in 1905, and it did not help. But the appearance of "Dreadnought" for all was an insight!
Roughly the same with rocket armament. "Volcano", "Uranus", "Mosquito", "Malachite", "Termite" on Russian ships - and only "Harpoon" and "Exochet" in German. The lists can also be expanded at the expense of the new models coming into service in approximately the same proportion. This begs the question: why and how did such diversity of artillery and missiles in a single fleet take shape? Is it justified by the requirements of the time and the tasks facing the fleet? Even a third-party man in the street will respond negatively. And experts will add that behind each of the listed items of artillery and rocket armament there is a list of no less diverse radio electronic systems of intelligence, control, guidance. We are overstressing our industry, believing that we can do and build everything. And this is not entirely true. The Western-imposed sanctions, which, by the way, were joined by both Germany and Ukraine, left the fleet without diesel engines and turbines for ships of the Russian fleet built and under construction. Germany itself is costing the LM 2500 gas turbine engines and MTU diesel engines of various modifications, which our sailors can only dream of. Our industry will cope with import substitution, but why again by an unjustified variety of projects?
Last example. The Black Sea Fleet already has two ships of the 21631 project with a tonnage of 949 tons, with a vertical launcher of the 3P-14 UKS complex on 8 Caliber or Onyx cruise missiles and an 100-mm gun. Already in a series of nine units there will be different running engines (a necessary and justified measure). And right there it is reported about the start of construction of the 22800 project ships with a displacement of 800 tons with the same vertical launcher, only located not along the ship but across the hull of the ship, and 76-mm gun. Probably, we are much richer than the burghers and far overtook the economic locomotive of Western Europe, since we allow ourselves similar “gastronomic delights”.
And yet there are optimistic facts in the construction of the European Black Sea Fleet. Two submarines of the 06363 project of the same type and two small rocket ships of the 21631 project have already become part of the fleet and have managed to demonstrate the combat capabilities of their missile weapons in the application of real targets in Syria. Despite the fourfold difference in displacement of the Admiral Grigorovich escort ship and the Zeleny Dol and Serpukhov small rocket ships, they have the same 100-mm main artillery caliber and 30-mm anti-aircraft artillery. The number of the newest sentry-guard, interregional submarines and submarines of the projects listed above is planned to be increased to six of each in the Black Sea Fleet, which will make it possible to form units of the same type of armament. So Russia has a hope of getting the German Navy on the Black Sea.
PS As the flagship ship to transfer to the Black Sea squadron destroyer of the project 956 "Admiral Ushakov", by the way, the only one in the ranks at the CSF. In the Baltic and the Black Sea will be the same type flagships. Still, Fedor Fedorovich Ushakov, canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church, did a lot for the Black Sea Fleet!
After 01.09.1939, Hitler's Germany found itself in a similar situation. The only ally is Italy. The Navy is in the process of fulfilling a long-term construction plan after its defeat in the First World War. Access to the ocean is blocked by the Anglo-French fleet.
We have the only ally in Europe - Belarus. Of the forty-five warships of the Black Sea Fleet, thirty-three were built in the USSR and in the last two years only five new combat units of not the largest displacement were received. In case of conflict, the Black Sea straits will be securely locked.
The fleet of Germany in the twentieth century has repeatedly demonstrated the possibility of waging an unreliable war at sea with the enemy's many times superior forces. And now the German Navy is a well-balanced in composition and optimally sharpened to perform tasks as part of the combined allied forces both in the theater of operations and outside of NATO’s responsibility.
The analogies do not end there. The coastline and sea border of Germany are comparable in length with those of Russia on the Black and Azov Seas, only before 2014, they had an excess in absolute terms, and after the annexation of the Crimea they were somewhat inferior. There are also difficulties: the coastline of Germany is divided into two regions by the Jutland peninsula, and the Crimea peninsula has no land connection with mainland Russia. And even, oddly enough, the total displacement of the warships of the Black Sea Fleet differs from the same indicator of the German Navy by no more than 10%.
Of course, it is incorrect to directly compare the German Navy and the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation; nevertheless, such an analysis could be taken to eliminate shortcomings from the past and outline the correct development trends for the future.
Ship composition
If you count the number of projects of combat ships of the German fleet today, it will not exceed nine. The minesweepers of the Ensdorf and Kulmbach types before the modernization were represented by the single type Hameln (project 343), built in 1989 — 1991. The third type, “Frankenthal” (322 project), was built in 1992 — 1998 as minesweepers — miners looking for (in hull, power plant, artillery and anti-aircraft armament are almost of the same type as Hamel’s minesweepers). Such longevity and consistency of mine-sweeping forces speaks of the initial deep and careful study of the ship’s design and the possibilities laid down for further upgrades, which still allow it to meet the requirements of the times. Brandenburg frigates (project 123) could be combined with earlier types of Bremen (project 122). They are related by the same power plant and armament, but an increase in the size of the hull and the replacement of the strike complex of anti-ship missiles on the more modern Brandenburg determined their selection as a separate project.
In the Black Sea Fleet, I counted 17 projects of warships, and this is without taking into account the various "A", "B", "M", "E" and other differences. Five submarines officially enrolled in the Black Sea Fleet belong to three different projects, whereas in Germany all six submarines of the same project. In one part of the Black Sea Fleet, three completely different projects of rocket ships are combined (1239 Ave., 12341 Ave., 21631 Ave.) With two combat units each. Do not forget, and five missile boats project 12411. But the German Navy modestly performs similar tasks with ten rocket boats of the same type "Cheetah". There is a lot to say about the possible flexibility of management, the specifics of the tasks to be solved, optimization of the forces, versatility and other similar arguments, but the economic component and logistics of maintenance, maintenance, repair, training and combat training of the crews of such various ships lays an unbearable burden on the fleet infrastructure and industry countries, or region, if you like.
The events in Syria posed the question squarely before the amphibious airborne forces of the Black Sea Fleet and the country's fleet as a whole. For the delivery of equipment, ammunition, and supplies, the capabilities of the seven large landing ships of the Black Sea Fleet were clearly not enough. Both the Baltic and the North helped, and yet they had to buy the motley ships of the civil fleet on the side. It should be noted that currently there are no tank landing ships in the German navy, which, in essence, are our paratroopers of the 1171 and 775 projects. There are plans to build a pair of universal amphibious ships with a displacement of three times more than any of the Black Sea and with the presence of transport-assault helicopters. The concept of the Cold War, which meant landing on an unequipped coast to a battalion of marines directly from ships, was somewhat outdated. The ships of the 1171 project, each of which is already over forty years old, are morally and physically outdated. More recent, the project 775, to be replaced simply because they were built in the Polish People's Republic, and their maintenance and repair are difficult. Let the opponents answer honestly: how many ships of Soviet construction and the German Democratic Republic remain in the German Navy?
And now - the most interesting! Before the Admiral Grigorovich escort ship arriving in the Black Sea, all ships of the Black Sea Fleet of the far sea zone have thirty-five years of service astern during not the most favorable periods for both the country and the fleet. Five ships belong to four completely different projects, in other words, the core of the fleet is assembled with the world on a string. This has never happened and should never be!
The “Moscow” missile cruiser has no place in the Black Sea, well, aircraft carriers do not enter here! And there are no real opponents in the Black Sea countries! “Donald Cook” comes to visit - Su-34 and coastal anti-ship complexes will manage. But in conjunction with the "Varyag" for example, the ship's shock group would look better on the Pacific Ocean.
Large anti-submarine ships "Kerch" and "Sharp-witted" (in the fleet of 1974 and 1969, respectively) are generally the only representatives of their projects not only in the Black Sea Fleet, but also in the country. Two “singing frigates” at the age of 35 will finally await replacement in the form of an admiral's series of guard for the Black Sea.
In fairness, I would like to note that the German Bremen frigates are the same age as our Ladny and Pytlivy patrols, and from 2017 will be gradually replaced by the F125 Baden-Wurttemberg frigates, which are twice as high as Admiral Grigorovich in displacement. .
Guns and Rockets
Information for consideration: the entire German modern fleet is equipped with weapons of only two calibers. These are the 76-mm / 62 single-barrel “MTO Melara” Mk-75 gun mount and the 27-mm MLG 27 automatic cannon. And only on the newest ships it is planned to return the guns in caliber to 127-mm.
And now we list only the calibers of the Black Sea ships: 130 mm (one gun installation for the entire fleet); 100 mm (four gun installations); 76,2 mm; 57 mm; 30 mm. I will not consider firing guns, which are also listed in the table of artillery weapons of some ships, probably to intimidate Somali pirates. If the thoughts of Russian and German gunsmith designers practically coincide in the need to have 27-30 mm caliber guns on each ship, then why hasn’t anyone stopped the Russians' wild imagination in the four remaining calibers? This diversity was in the second Pacific squadron in 1905, and it did not help. But the appearance of "Dreadnought" for all was an insight!
Roughly the same with rocket armament. "Volcano", "Uranus", "Mosquito", "Malachite", "Termite" on Russian ships - and only "Harpoon" and "Exochet" in German. The lists can also be expanded at the expense of the new models coming into service in approximately the same proportion. This begs the question: why and how did such diversity of artillery and missiles in a single fleet take shape? Is it justified by the requirements of the time and the tasks facing the fleet? Even a third-party man in the street will respond negatively. And experts will add that behind each of the listed items of artillery and rocket armament there is a list of no less diverse radio electronic systems of intelligence, control, guidance. We are overstressing our industry, believing that we can do and build everything. And this is not entirely true. The Western-imposed sanctions, which, by the way, were joined by both Germany and Ukraine, left the fleet without diesel engines and turbines for ships of the Russian fleet built and under construction. Germany itself is costing the LM 2500 gas turbine engines and MTU diesel engines of various modifications, which our sailors can only dream of. Our industry will cope with import substitution, but why again by an unjustified variety of projects?
Last example. The Black Sea Fleet already has two ships of the 21631 project with a tonnage of 949 tons, with a vertical launcher of the 3P-14 UKS complex on 8 Caliber or Onyx cruise missiles and an 100-mm gun. Already in a series of nine units there will be different running engines (a necessary and justified measure). And right there it is reported about the start of construction of the 22800 project ships with a displacement of 800 tons with the same vertical launcher, only located not along the ship but across the hull of the ship, and 76-mm gun. Probably, we are much richer than the burghers and far overtook the economic locomotive of Western Europe, since we allow ourselves similar “gastronomic delights”.
And yet there are optimistic facts in the construction of the European Black Sea Fleet. Two submarines of the 06363 project of the same type and two small rocket ships of the 21631 project have already become part of the fleet and have managed to demonstrate the combat capabilities of their missile weapons in the application of real targets in Syria. Despite the fourfold difference in displacement of the Admiral Grigorovich escort ship and the Zeleny Dol and Serpukhov small rocket ships, they have the same 100-mm main artillery caliber and 30-mm anti-aircraft artillery. The number of the newest sentry-guard, interregional submarines and submarines of the projects listed above is planned to be increased to six of each in the Black Sea Fleet, which will make it possible to form units of the same type of armament. So Russia has a hope of getting the German Navy on the Black Sea.
PS As the flagship ship to transfer to the Black Sea squadron destroyer of the project 956 "Admiral Ushakov", by the way, the only one in the ranks at the CSF. In the Baltic and the Black Sea will be the same type flagships. Still, Fedor Fedorovich Ushakov, canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church, did a lot for the Black Sea Fleet!
Information