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| Russian Navy reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs. (Source: izvestiye.ru) |
Going back in history, when the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the Western countries was at its peak, radio-electronic reconnaissance became an inseparable part of the battle for dominance in the middle of the ocean. To achieve this goal, re-equipping civilian ships would not be effective. In this context, large, medium, and even small reconnaissance ships of the Soviet Union began to be built.
Each version had its own mission and was considered the “eyes and ears” of the Soviet Union. For example, during the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982, or during NATO exercises in the Pacific, Soviet reconnaissance ships were deployed not far away. Thus, any missile launch from the ocean could not escape the surveillance of Soviet reconnaissance ships.
At the beginning of this century, Russia's reconnaissance ship force was considered relatively thin. Currently, Moscow has a total of 2 reconnaissance ships.
The predecessor of Ivan Khurs was the reconnaissance ship Yuri Ivanov, both built under project 18280. In some ways, Yuri Ivanov is considered an experimental product.
The Ivan Khurs reconnaissance ship is a completely different version, it is considered a command ship in the future war - network-centric war. One of the characteristics of this type of war is that all the components of the war, from the command to weapons, equipment and people are connected in a unified information network. This is an important condition for carrying out long-range attacks on the enemy continuously and unexpectedly.
Based on the size of the ship, Ivan Khurs is considered a medium-sized warship with a length of 96m and a width of 16m.
In economy mode, Ivan Khurs's range is 8,000 nautical miles. The ship is equipped with a rather modest weapon system, including 2 or 4 heavy machine gun systems and an Igla mobile air defense system.
Despite being equipped with a fairly simple weapons system, the Ivan Khurs reconnaissance ship is still considered a formidable weapon of Russia, no different from the Kinzhal and Poseidon hypersonic missiles.
The strength and power of the Ivan Khurs ship is mainly concentrated in its super modern equipment system. Thanks to advanced electronic reconnaissance and radio communication equipment, the Ivan Khurs ship can be the center of coordination of the actions of an entire battle group, maintaining close contact with the air force and army units.
Notably, the Ivan Khurs reconnaissance ship has many superior characteristics and capabilities compared to its predecessor. The reconnaissance ships of the Russian Navy are indeed key elements in the automated control system for the fleet.
On May 24, the reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs was attacked by a group of three suicide boats while on duty protecting the TurkStream pipeline in the Black Sea, 140km northeast of the Bosphorus Strait. The suicide boats were detected by the radio and sonar equipment of the Ivan Khurs and destroyed by machine guns of the Russian sailors. The Ivan Khurs continued to operate as planned.
Former Chief of the Russian Navy General Staff, Admiral Valentin Selivanov, said that if these boats were equipped with machine guns, the situation would become much more complicated. In fact, they were small boats, only three in number, if there were more, the situation would become very dangerous.
Admiral Valentin Selivanov said: "The Ivan Khurs only has the function of reconnaissance and information gathering, not combat missions, but when things have developed in such a direction, in high-risk sea areas, the Russian Navy needs to take measures to protect its ships. Specific measures are to send missile ships and escort ships, not to mention that it may have to use more powerful forces."
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