As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I have had the greatest romantic notions of warfare in the context of the American Civil War. It was not the battles of Shiloh or Mobile Bay, but what always intrigued me was American rivers were combat zones in some of the most horrific firefights known in human history.
People in America, never realize their tranquil rivers were once the serpents coil of death driving the fangs of gunboats into the heart of their most secure fortresses.
It is in this that I feature one of the many advances in the Russian military Navy in the Buyan Class of Corvettes. Most people think of a corvette as a sportscar, but a corvette in original content was a light class warship. While it was not a main line ship or a frigate, these little ships in the War of 1812 fought some of the most dogged battles of the war between England and America.
These ships Russia is turning out are remarkable in they have 56 cylinder engines, which produce a jet thrust to propel them through the water at 20 knots. They are light in draft, so they operate from the inland Caspian, up to Moscow, through the canal, and into the Black Sea.
The ship has an important advantage to make it unique. Its displacement allows it to effectively operate in rivers. The Volga and the tributaries form the biggest riverine system in Europe connected to the Caspian Sea. Armed with the weapons not covered by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the relatively cheap corvette can be easily redeployed using Russia’s inland waterways. The Buyan class corvettes based in the Caspian Sea can use the riverine ways to operate in different areas.A ship of this class can go to Moscow, «the port of five seas», through the Moscow Canal and then move to the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the White Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Baltic. The corvette can launch cruise missiles from a vast expanse of territory. The Buyan-M ship with long range missiles on board does not violate the Intermediate Forces Treaty (INF), which bans only ground-based intermediate range missiles. The NATO ballistic missile defense sites in Romania and Poland are within the range of its cruise missiles.
What I see in these corvettes are the ultimate in advance and assistance weapons, for a Russian invasion of Europe if the Obama Clinton world war begins there. Think of these ships coursing up the Danube, tacking up the Rhine or cruising up the Meuse.
One of these ships supported with speed gun boats as the American PT boats, close air cover and a few hundred marines, would produce all sorts of forward operating bases to secure bases for Russian spears driving up.
For those who think smugly that this matters not to them in America, it makes one wonder what a flotilla of these corvettes would accomplish in the 21st century on the Mississippi, Columbia, Potomac as they did in the Civil War.
The Russians are prepared for warfare after the sophisticated warfare degrades. It is an impressive platform of diplomacy for peace on Russian terms, after some fool decides to start a war.
agtG
