“Ukraine hits Russian Buyan cruise missile carrier and Pavel Derzhavin vessel with drones” –Ukrainska Pravda

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©Sea Baby dron. screenshot.
© Ukrainska Pravda

Ukrainska Pravda reports,

The Security Service of Ukraine, together with the Ukrainian Navy, has attacked the Buyan cruise missile carrier and the ship Pavel Derzhavin using experimental weapons on uncrewed surface vessels…both vessels were hit by Sea Baby drones with experimental weapons.

The Buyan cruise missile carrier or Buyan-M (that is the name of the class, not a specific ship) is a small, 949 ton full load, 75 meter (246′) corvette armed with up to eight cruise missiles similar in capability to the American Tomahawk.

Buyan-M class corvette, Volgodonsk in Astrakhan. Author Anton Blinov, via Wikipedia.

Pavel Derzhavin is a Project 22160 class patrol ship, a bit bigger than the Buyan-M at 94 meters (308 ft) in length, but not as heavily armed.

Russian Project 22160 Patrol Ship Dmitriy Rogachyov in Sevastopol, 12 April 2019. Photo from Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation.

I found the reference to “Sea Baby drones with experimental weapons” interesting, not that the Sea Baby drone was experimental, so I presume the warhead was experimental. Various reports seem to indicate the explosion was extremely loud and created a great deal of smoke. This could have been the result of secondary explosions.

It is not clear if the two ships were sunk.

Information about the source here.

11 thoughts on ““Ukraine hits Russian Buyan cruise missile carrier and Pavel Derzhavin vessel with drones” –Ukrainska Pravda”

  1. Wow, that Russian corvette sure is (was?) armed to the teeth!
    It’s what the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship should have been.
    Compare that to the LCS, with one 57mm gun, two 30mm single-barrel guns, and a few hellfire missiles thrown in as an afterthought.

    The Russian Buyan-M has a 100 mm main gun, Pantsir air-defense system (which has AA missiles plus two 6-barrel 30mm gatling guns), two additional multi-barrel 30mm guns (making four 30mm guns total), anti-ship missiles, and much more. Each pair of 30mm gatling guns has a rate of fire of up to 10,000 rounds per minute. Wikipedia lists the Buyan-M as having

    1 × 100 mm A-190-01 naval gun[3]
    1 × 2 30 mm AK-630-M2 CIWS
    1 × Pantsir-M CIWS (Stavropol)
    2 × 4 UKSK VLS cells for Kalibr or Oniks anti-ship cruise missiles
    2 × 4 Komar surface-to-air missiles[4]
    1 × 10 55 mm DP-65 anti-saboteur grenade launcher
    2 × 14.5 mm KPV type

    Sounds impressive, so it’s kind of funny that none of that armament was able to save them from attack by a glorified jet-ski drone, an unmanned PWC.. On paper, the Russian armament sounds very impressive, just like the Moskva’s armament sounded impressive until it sunk to the bottom of the Black Sea.

    Reply ↓

    • I corrected David’s typos so now reads as he intended.
      The LCS are getting eight Naval Strike Missiles, so the difference is not as significant as it once was, and the LCS also have support for helicopters and unmanned systems so there were trade-offs.

      The Buyan-Ms were sized to move through the Russian river systems allowing them to move between the Baltic Sea, Caspian Sea, and the Black Sea on Russian internal waters. Their range, 2,300 nmi (4,300 km; 2,600 mi) at 12 knots, is less than that of the Webber class or the LCSs.

      Reply ↓

      • I still like the Indy LCS sub-variant. 1-57mm, 8 NSMs, 1 SeaRAM launcher, and a MH-60R isn’t bad. Now if they would only mount 2-30mm Mk38 Mod4s as well as the VL Hellfire, and switch over to the COMBATSS-21 CMS quickly, I would be happy.

        Patience, I know. Patience.

    • I’d rather swap some firepower for range, sea keeping, and habability. 57mm, 8 NSMs, 2 SeaRAMs and a UAV with 4,000 nmi range.

      Reply ↓

      • Did the NAVSEA ever lift the 2020 restrictions on the Independence class due the aluminum structural hull cracking, max of 15 knots and steaming in less than sea state 4?

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