Excellent And Warm Piece On Sergei Gorshkov.

By Indian military professional Shishir Upadhyaya for RT today.

Naval cadets around the world think of Sergey Gorshkov as the man who said ‘Better is the enemy of good’ and transformed the Red Fleet into the powerful Soviet Navy. Little known fact is that he ‘fathered’ the Indian Navy, too. 

There are very few post WW II military leaders globally who did command as much interest and professional respect as Admiral Sergei Gorshkov, after all Time magazine put his face on the cover in its 1968 Man of the Year issue for a reason.

Gorshkov laid down the foundation for the modern naval combat already in 1960s and 1970s when recognized the immense power of new weapon system known as anti-shipping cruise missile. He was primarily a proponent of Sea Denial which, obversely, meant the loss of Sea Control by the mighty US Navy. Soviet Navy, through Gorshkov, was betting on missises which would destroy the backbone of the US Navy--US aircraft carriers. Indian Navy applied those views fully to its own operations. 

So why did the Indian Embassy in Moscow host the celebration of what would have been Gorshkov’s 110th birthday recently? Because the legendary admiral who built the Soviet Navy into a Cold War powerhouse also transformed the Indian Navy into a modern sea power to be reckoned with. “Gorshkov built the Soviet navy... and it was because of his efforts and skill, that the Soviet Union became a global power,” India’s ambassador to Russia Bala Venkatesh Varma told RT, adding that the Indo-Russian naval relationship is a rare and “unique example where something that started in the last century, 55 years ago, is still continuing today.” This special relationship can be directly traced to Gorshkov, who laid the foundation for the ever-evolving modern military relationship between New Delhi and Moscow.

Early 1980s one could see Indian naval officers and NCOs and their wives around the campus of my Alma Mater--the commanding core of Chakra  K-43 (Soviet Charlie-class, project 670 SSGN) were being trained for service at this nuclear sub in Indian Navy. The crews were also rotated through other naval academies and Soviet training facilities for submariners. So, the words of the Indian Ambassador are not just run-of-the-mill pleasantries. Today, India continues to be a recipient of Russian naval (and other military) technology, most important manifestation of which being a deployment of Russian-build Pr. 11356 Talwar-class frigates armed with Russian-Indian Brahmos anti-shipping and land-attack missiles and expecting to be armed with hyper-sonic version of Brahmos by late 2020s. In general, it is a good piece and a very warm one towards the memory of famous Soviet Admiral who, in the end, did change naval combat as we know it.

Admiral Kasatanov Is Off To Trials.

Second (first series) frigate of the project 22350 (Admiral Gorshkov-class) Admiral Kasatanov is on its way to trials.

ST.PETERSBURG, December 21. /TASS/. The second Project 22350 frigate AdmiralKasatonov built at the Severnaya Verf Shipyard in St. Petersburg in northwestRussia has entered sea trials, the Shipyard’s press office told TASS on Friday."The frigate Admiral Kasatonov has taken to the sea for trials. They willlast until the New Year," the press office said. During the trials, theshipbuilders will check the warship’s systems: from the propulsion unit toelectrical equipment and the navigation, damage control and crew rescue system.The frigate Fleet Admiral Kasatonov is the second (the first serial-produced)Project 22350 warship. The Project was developed by the Severnoye DesignBureau. The lead warship of this series, the Admiral Gorshkov, was delivered tothe Navy in the summer of 2018 and the construction of two more frigates (theAdmiral Golovko and the Admiral Isakov) continues at the slipways of theSevernaya Verf Shipyard in St. Petersburg. Project 22350 frigates are expectedto become the Russian Navy’s most advanced warships in their class. Thesefrigates displace 4,500 tonnes and can develop a speed of 29 knots. They arearmed with Oniks and Kalibr missiles and the Poliment-Redut air defense missilesystem.

This is a milestone event for Russian Navy when one considers what went into the birth of this class of the ships after decades of gross under-funding and, sometimes, direct sabotage of Russian Navy. These are powerful ships with a state-of-the-art air-defense complex Poliment-Redut and a comprehensive electronics suite. Of course, these handsome ships pack a very serious anti-shipping and land-attack punch, capable to launch both Kalibr family missiles as well as P-800 Oniks. 

Kasatonov Off To Trials

Here is also TV report (in Russian) on this event:

At this stage no one knows if this class will be limited to 6 hulls with much heavier project 22350M "so called" frigates coming after them but, after issues with Poliment-Redut have been sorted out, there is very little doubt that these seem to be very nice and powerful ships. In related news, as CNBC based on their "sources" (Hm!) reports:

WASHINGTON — Russia has conducted another successful test of its ship-based hypersonic missile, a weapon the United States is currently unable to defend against, according to two people with direct knowledge of a U.S. intelligence report. The people, who spoke to CNBC on the condition of anonymity, said Russia has carried out five total tests of its ship-based hypersonic missile since 2015. The last known test of the device, dubbed “Tsirkon,” was successfully conducted Dec. 10 and reached a top speed of Mach 8, approximately eight times the speed of sound, or about two miles per second. “What we are seeing with this particular weapon is that the Russians designed it to have a dual-purpose capability, meaning, it can be used against a target on land as well as a vessel at sea,” one source explained. “Last week’s successful test showed that the Russians were able to achieve sustained flight, a feat that is crucial in the development of hypersonic weapons.”

I don't know what those CNBC's "sources" are, but there is very little doubt that hyper-sonic missiles of non-Kinzhal aero-ballistic variety are coming very soon to ships and submarines of the Russian Navy. There is absolutely nothing which can defend against salvo of such missiles and that does change, as I wrote for years, the naval combat completely thus overturning many doctrinal assumptions by fervent navalists, especially in relation to aircraft carrier-centricity of the fleets. This was, actually, clear already in 1980s. Will Gorshkov-class be able to carry Zircon (3M22) once it gets procured? Most likely. But even in present configuration of their weapons' suites these ships are truly first post-Soviet Russia's, from scratch, major combatants who outgun any ship in the frigate-class in the world. Not too shabby, if one asks me.   

UPDATE (12/22). Yes, it looks like CNBC got this one right this time, since TASS' sources in military-industrial complex did confirm this: 

MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Russia has made over ten test launches of the Tsirkon seaborne hypersonic missile against naval targets at a distance of over several hundred kilometers since the beginning of its trials, a source in the defense industry told TASS on Friday.The missile’s trials began about four years ago and are continuing now from the coastal stand, the source said. "Overall, more than ten test launches have been performed against targets at sea at a distance of several hundred kilometers," the source said. The hypersonic missile "repeatedly destroyed designated naval targets at the hypersonic speed," the source added, declining to give the date of the latest trials. TASS has no official confirmation of this information yet.

The most important in this piece is this:

As was reported earlier, Tsirkon missiles will be launched with the help of the universal shipborne vertical launching systems currently used for Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles. Such systems are mounted, in particular, on Project 20380 corvettes, Project 22350 frigates and Project 885 Yasen-class submarines.

That pretty much sums up a general direction Russian Navy is taking. Not that we didn't know or justifiably assumed it, but the ability of VLS UKSK to launch 3M22 gives a good grasp of the "weight" of the salvo by Russian fleet.