The Indian Navy’s operational planners are studying the sinking of the missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, by two Ukrainian anti-ship cruise missiles on April 14 with the focus on how to protect Indian warships from anti-ship ballistic missiles like the Chinese DF-21. The last Russian flagship sunk was in the Battle of Tsushima by the Japanese imperial navy in 1905, 117 years ago.
The sinking of a Russian cruiser in the ongoing Ukraine war poses serious questions about the survivability of warships in the day and age of anti-ship cruises as well as ballistic missiles. The anti-ship weapon poses threat to all navies in the world including the Chinese Navy, which has been flaunting its aircraft carriers, Liaoning, and Shandong, against in the Indo-Pacific while threatening the mighty US Navy with DF 21 and DF 26 missiles. The Chinese propaganda media has dubbed DF 21 as a ship killer and DF 26 as killer of the US base in Guam in the Indo-Pacific.
It is learnt that the sinking of the Russian Moskva will be a topic of discussion at the Naval Commanders Conference next week.