"US missile cruiser to enter Black Sea amid NATO..." Topic

…drills in Eastern Europe.

"The US missile cruiser Vella Gulf is expected to arrive in the Black Sea on May 23, a military source told a Russian news agency. Another NATO vessel is already in the area, while the French Navy's stealth frigate will reportedly be there by late May.

This comes as part of a wider buildup of NATO forces close to Russian borders against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis.

The American Aegis guided missile cruiser will be in the Black Sea in time for the Ukrainian presidential elections on May 25, a military-diplomatic source told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency on Monday…"
Full article here.
link

Is this getting hot?

Amicalement
Armand

Is this getting hot?

No. Unless I am very much mistaken, the Black Sea is international waters (except for the usual 12 miles out from the coast). US ships have as much right to be there as anybody else.

Always good to puff out your chest while the school bully picks on another victim.

Always good to puff out your chest while the school bully picks on another victim.

I'm sorry, I don't understand this comment at all. Who are calling a bully?

Nope. I don't know about the naval deployment, but the Baltic exercises were announced literally years ago and the full orbat for the exercise was announced long before the present Ukrainian unpleasantness. NATO tends to announce its big exercises (and invite international observers, including Russians) well in advance, precisely in order to de-fuse scurrilous accusations of this sort.

The same sort of crap was spouted in both British AND Spanish right-wing press when the Royal Navy deployed via Gibraltar for a pre-announced exercise last year, just at the time when Franco's boys were doing what fascists do. Then as now, it had been announced well over 6 months in advance and long before any tensions arose to prompt a 'deployment'. And guess what; the RN visited Gib as planned, then bogged off to their exercise as planned, just as the press release had said they would in Navy News six months earlier… Though that wasn't reported at the time, because it wasn't sensationalist crap.

Similarly, recent NATO fighter deployments to the Baltic have been recently announced as if they're news, even though NATO has been doing EXACTLY this ever since the Baltic states joined NATO and Russia started performing illegal overflights.

Nothing to see here (again).

If you go back through back-editions of the US Navy news, you might well find an old pre-announcement of this deployment.

If memory serves these cruisers don't carry anywhere near a full load of missiles for the VLS in peace time. Would a sign of impending combat be a trip to the US for loading up?

I guess that isn't always going to be practical. Are the VLS missiles available in bases around the world or can they be flown in?

VLS missiles can be reloaded *at sea*, nevermind in any port with a 5-ton crane.

At sea reload of VLS was deleted years ago as it basically didn't work all that well.