Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[SecondWar]

Dulfite said:

How is a cruiser class ship the flagship of the Black Sea Russian fleet. Do they not have aircraft carriers or battleships in that fleet?

I'm having my original noob question up even though I found the answer before posting, due to having learned something. Apparently nobody uses battleships anymore. And I guess the black sea fleet wouldn't need aircraft carriers since the sea is located very near Russian land.

Me being right - 0
Me having learned something - 1

Aircraft carriers are more for patrolling oceans, far from your shoreline to project your airforce to support other ships, ground forces etc. As you say, the Russia has territory in the Black Sea basin making an aircraft carrier unnecessary, they can just use a land airstrip. Plus the relatively small size of the Black Sea means an aircraft carrier would be overkill - they would more likely have one in their Far East fleet which would be on a larger body of water and with less built up areas where airstrip can perform the same function.

Edit - Turns out not even their Far East (actually called Pacific) Fleet has one. Russia only has 1 aircraft carrier and its assigned to their Northern Fleet which patrols their artic waters. And no, they can’t redeploy it or other ships to the Black Sea because Turkey closed the straits into it at the start of the war to all ships that aren’t based in the Black Sea. Sure, Russia could attack to force the straights open again, but Turkey is a Nato member...

Last edited by SecondWar - on 13 April 2022