Russian NAVY in Vancouver

[Profister]

Missile Cruiser Varyag is parked at Canada Place. HMCS Algonquin has been assigned as host ship, and will assist Russian personnel throughout the visit.
http://en.ria.ru/world/20111109/168531539.html
I am going on board on Thursday. Very excited as I have proudly served for the Soviet NAVY in 1973-1976.

[mararmeisto]

Too bad they're not in town next week - it would have been great to see my ol' adversary again: the Slava-class cruiser. Surface-to-surface missiles the size of boxcars, if I remember correctly. Here's a picture of one sailing into San Francisco giving a better view of the forward end - the business end! Impressive vessels, but this is the last one remaining I think.

[Profister]

Thanks mararmeisto for the great picture. Actually there are 3 of these class 1164 (Slava by NATO classification)- Moskva (former Slava), Varyag and Marshall Ustinov. The 4th one Ukraine is still only 95% ready since 1998.
Yes, those 16 guided missiles P-500 Bazalt make these cruisers a real threat for aircraft carriers. This is what Wiki says:

The P-500 Bazalt was first deployed in 1975 on the Soviet aircraft carrier Kiev, and was later added to both the Echo II class submarine and the Juliett class submarine. The missiles was intended to be used in salvos; a submarine could launch eight in rapid succession, maintaining control of each through a separate datalink. In flight the group could co-ordinate their actions; one would fly up to 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) and use its active radar to search for targets, forwarding this data to the other missiles which remained at low altitude. The missiles were programmed so that half of a salvo would head for a carrier target, with the rest dividing between other ships. If the high flying missile was shot down another from the salvo would automatically pop up to take its place. All of the missiles would switch to active radar for the terminal phase of the attack.

Impessive technology but hopefully there will be no real use for it.

[Profister]

Vancouver Sun: Russian ships open to the public in Vancouver.
http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Russ ... story.html

[Pajerist]

Vancouver Sun: Russian ships open to the public in Vancouver.
http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Russ ... story.html

Too bad too little too late to be there...

[MardyDelica]

wow i miss this sergie,
at least they came from a friendly nation like canada.
hope u got more pictures;
cheers;
Mardy

[Profister]

I took some stunning pictures today, will post them later.

[mararmeisto]

I took some stunning pictures today, will post them tomorrow.

Did you get pictures of the crew on parade downtown? I was in Russia Victory Day 1990, and it was a special parade for me to be marching with them, they with us.

[Profister]

Sorry, no. I was busy until 2 pm which was the departure time. This is how it looked like.

[mararmeisto]

I'd forgotten how truly big those cruisers are! ALGONQUIN looks positively tiny in comparison.

Too bad I didn't get to see it again in person one more time. Do svidaniya!