The United States and its NATO allies also have been sharing intelligence with Ukraine. A Harpoon needs to know where to go before it switches on its seeker. Some versions of the sea-hugging, subsonic Harpoon missile-with its radar seeker and 500-pound warhead-can travel a hundred miles or more.Īn anti-ship missile is only as good as its targeting, of course. Once the Harpoon launcher arrives, the frigates might have to pull back even farther. In the aftermath of Moskva’s sinking, the Russians pulled their two remaining Black Sea surface combatants-the frigates Admiral Grigorovich and Admiral Essen-beyond range of the shore-based Neptune. Ankara is a strong backer of Ukraine’s independence-remember, the TB-2 is a Turkish product-and has not allowed the Russian navy to send in fresh ships to make good the Black Sea Fleet’s losses. Turkey controls the Bosphorous Strait, the only waterway connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and thus the open ocean. So of course the TB-2s have plinked some of the undefended craft, too. ![]() There aren’t many vessels left that can, or will, escort the landing craft. ![]() Satellite-controlled TB-2s firing 10-mile-range MAM laser-guided missiles also have struck four of the Russians’ eight Raptor-class patrol boats, whose main role lately has been to shepherd landing craft to the Russian garrison on Snake Island, which sits astride the sea lane to Odesa. The Ukrainians holed the Black Sea Fleet cruiser Moskva with a pair of Neptune anti-ship missiles on April 14, eventually sinking her and depriving the Black Sea Fleet of its only ship with long-range air-defenses. But the navy does have locally-made Neptune anti-ship missiles plus missile-armed TB-2 drones-and has used them to devastating effect.
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