The Black Sea Fleet's landing ship Caesar Kunikov was sunk in less than 20 days, and the Russian Navy has suffered another major blow in recent days, a cutting-edge patrol ship was surrounded by Ukrainian unmanned attack boats with "wolf pack" tactics, this patrol ship intercepted two waves of unmanned attack boat attacks, and finally failed to escape the third wave of attacks, due to its own serious damage, causing it to sink in the waters near Feodosia in the Kerch Strait.
According to the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Service (GUR), a new patrol ship named "Sergei Kotov" of the 22160 class, which is part of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, was heavily damaged by the 13th Ukrainian special forces using the Magura V5 unmanned attack boat, the stern and left and right sides of the ship were seriously damaged, and the hull of the ship was flooded.
GER spokesman Andrei Yusov later stated:"Sergei Kotov" has sunk in the Kerch Strait, but the specific number of people on board the ship is unknown, and the current known news is that the Russian side has sent more than a dozen ambulances to the scene to rescue, the evacuation operation is still continuing, and part of the crew has been evacuated.
Although the Ministry of Defense has not yet responded to the attack and sinking of the "Sergei Kotov", after the end of the fighting, the Crimean bridge has been temporarily closed to vehicular traffic, and the ban was not lifted until this afternoon.
However, now some Russian media have confirmed that the ship has indeed sunk, and they also shouted to the Russian Black Sea Fleet in a slightly sarcastic toneIf the fight continues at this rate, then after a while the Black Sea Fleet will only be left with some "banana boats" for soldiers to fight.
Including this patrol ship, the Black Sea Fleet has already lost at least three ** in 2024, including a Project 1241 missile frigate, a Project 775 large landing ship and a Project 22160 patrol ship. If we go any further, the Black Sea Fleet's losses are even worse, having lost three ** boats in December alone.
Ukraine has used the measure word "one-third" in the past to describe the losses of the Black Sea Fleet since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and I personally think this figure should be conservative.
Moreover, compared with the old warships lost by the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the past, although the patrol ship that was sunk yesterday is not the main ship of the fleet, it is one of the few cutting-edge ships that the Black Sea Fleet has received in recent years.
The "Sergei Kotov" patrol ship was officially launched in 2021 and delivered to the Black Sea Fleet in July 2022, belonging to the 22160 class of large patrol ships with a full load displacement of about 1700 to 1800 tons, and a total of four patrol ships of this class have been built so far, all of which are equipped with the Black Sea Fleet.
The lead ship of the 22160 class, the Vasily Bykov, was one of the few ships of the Black Sea Fleet to take part in the battle on the first day of the conflict, when it joined the missile cruiser Moskva in the battle to capture Snake Island.
Although the "Sergei Kotov" does not have the aura of "Vasily Bykov" and "used me in the first battle", it is quite experienced in dealing with Ukrainian unmanned attack boats;
According to statistics, this patrol ship has repelled the attacks of Ukrainian unmanned attack boats three times during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, namely in July, August and September last year, and in the three battles, it cooperated with the "Vasily Bykov" to destroy a total of 10 unmanned attack boats, so it can be regarded as a glorious battleship with great achievements.
The "wolf hunting" little expert can't compete with the "wolves"! "Sergei Kotov" finally failed to withstand the fourth attack of Ukrainian unmanned attack boats;
In this attack, the Ukrainian side prepared more unmanned attack boats for the patrol ship than in any previous battle, a total of 15 units.
From the description of this battle by the Ukrainian side, we can know that this patrol ship resisted the first two waves of Ukrainian unmanned attack boat attacks, and 10 Magura V5s were destroyed, but in the third wave of attacks, the "Sergei Kotov" patrol boat, which had already bottomed out of ammunition, was powerless, and it was finally sunk under the attack of five unmanned attack boats.
If this course of battle is true, then the "Sergei Kotov" can also be regarded as "doing its best", after all, it is just a patrol ship;
Sergei Kotov" is not very "rich" in fact, it has only one 762 mm AK-176 naval guns, two 145mm heavy machine gun, some other auxiliary ** are DP-64 65 grenade launchers and missile launchers called modular arrangement, but it is not known if this patrol ship is equipped, according to the product description of 22160, these ** are available.
When fighting against unmanned attack boats, I personally feel that its only effective means of striking is the AK-176 naval gun.
With such firepower, it has already performed well to withstand two waves of "wolf pack" attacks in Ukraine.
Some Russian military experts believe that the United States and the British are likely to be behind the attack on the "Sergei Kotov", who obtained the specific location of the patrol ship carrying out patrol missions in the Kerch Strait through the space reconnaissance network of the United States Bureau, and then transmitted the relevant information to the British BEC team that secretly intervened and tracked it in real time, and finally these data were completely handed over to the 13th special forces of Ukraine and completed the interception.
Relatively speaking, the sinking of this "young" patrol ship may be no less severe than the sinking of the Russian Black Sea Fleet by the "Moskva" missile cruiser in the same year. However, "Sergei Kotov" is a representative ship of the Russian Navy's transformation, at a time when the new main destroyer is far away from entering service, although the tonnage and combat effectiveness of the 22160 class are not particularly outstanding, but at least it can take on some of the daily combat readiness and combat missions of the Black Sea Fleet in the theater of operations, and now even it is difficult to escape the Ukrainian "wolf pack" attack, and if it continues, the future of the Black Sea Fleet is really very worrying.