GarryB Mon May 30, 2022 4:20 am
Yes, but Russia has more minesweepers than most other navies... they take the threat very seriously...
In the past I would have said Russia wouldn't care much because even if Russia was totally land locked they would still function, whereas it is the US that is heavily reliant of sea lanes operating normally for commerce to continue and feed their economy.
Now that the west has rejected them and is openly promoting the murder of Russians, Russia has to look to the rest of the world for trade and allies, so moving forward investment and spending on naval equipment is going to become much more important to their economy and their future.
The thing is that in the 1980s the Soviets developed sea mine fuses that they could attach to conventional aircraft bombs, which could be carried by normal aircraft flown out to sea and dropped as mines... shallow waters and choke points you could fly a bomber like a Tu-22M3 through that could drop three or four 3,000kg FAB-3000s that would make a big splash and then sink to the bottom and then wait for ships or subs to sail past and boom... in very shallow waters they could use FAB-100, FAB-250, FAB-500, FAB-1500... they have a wide choice of conventional dumb bombs they could fit with a tail fuse with a MAD sensor or a noise sensor...
I would say Poseidon is more impressive to be honest... and who knows... they might have a version that drops small nuclear mines as it travels to spread the destruction around.