Romanian military expert Valentin Vasilescu believes that Washington is preparing to send the ships of the Sixth Fleet to the Russian shores in the Black Sea. According to him, the United States simply forgot the sad story for them with the ships “Yorktown” and “Caron”.
US media reported that Washington is preparing to send a warship to the Black Sea amid an incident in the Kerch Strait. According to CNN, the State Department even sent a request to Ankara to obtain permission to pass vessels through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles. Romanian military expert Valenti Vasilescu said in an interview with the correspondents of the PolitRussia portal that Washington most likely intends to attract ships of the US Sixth Fleet, so the appearance of a squadron destroyer of the Arly Burke type or a Ticonderoga missile cruiser is quite expected in the Black Sea. , or two at once.
Vasilescu added that the United States is very risky in escalating the situation in the Black Sea region, because they already have the sad experience of provocation involving the Ticonderoga class cruiser and the destroyer off the coast of the Crimea, which turned into a failure. We are talking about the history of 30 years ago, when, as a result of a collision of Soviet and American ships, the cruiser and destroyer of the US Navy had to flee from the Black Sea.
On February 12, 1988, the ships of the US Navy “Yorktown” and “Caron”, which were already well known to the Soviet border guards in the incident of the 86th year, when the ships walked through the territorial waters of the USSR with working radar stations, headed for the Soviet waters. Accompanying SKR-6 guard ship, the SKR-6 escort ship, Izmail, the border guard missile ship, received an order to force out the American ship, right up to the pile and the ram. The Americans, naturally, stated that they did not break anything and continued to move along the same course. And it became their fatal mistake.
At the time of the violation of the territorial waters of the USSR by the “Yorktown” and “Karon” Soviet ships began a maneuver in rapprochement with the Americans. First, the “selfless” strut-up the American cruiser, raised by anchor, and the “SKR-6” walked along the port side of the destroyer. But even after this collision, the Americans returned the ships to the same course. Then the “Selfless” rammed the “Yorktown”, actually being on his helipad, breaking with his commander boat and launcher PCR “Harpoon”. On the American cruiser the fire began.
In response, the American side began to prepare deck helicopters for takeoff. The chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet, Valentin Selivanov, warned the Americans that in the event of takeoff, all aircraft would be shot down as having violated the airspace of the USSR. Once over the US Navy ships passed the Mi-24, the crews of Yorktown and Caron rolled their helicopters back into the hangar and sent their ships to neutral waters, trying to put out the fire.
According to Vasilescu, the Soviet border guards acted decisively and very bravely, because the ships of the USSR were four times less than the ships of the US Navy. It was the American ships that suffered more significant damage: the Yorktown lost half of the Garpun missile launchers and a helicopter hangar. The expert believes that if Washington suddenly wants to repeat this provocation, then it will turn out just as sad for the United States as in 1988.