[SandyCaesar]

Definitely, Kapitan and KZ II. Thanks loads.

Mainly I was wondering about the differences in weapon loads between the Russians and the Americans. And there's really no doubt today that the Russians are ahead in the ASM/ASW missile game; although I have to say the Tactical Tomahawk program looks pretty promising. It's still a subsonic seaskimmer, though, no match for one of the Russian giants--or a Klub, if they've worked out its reliability issues. Still, supersonic seaskimming swarm from nowhere...(shudders)

The only problem I could see is that, AFAIK, the Soviets/Russians never did work out the noise issue with their SSGNs. (By the 1970s, I think that Juliets and Echos wouldn't have really been a significant threat to American carrier croups; surfacing against those helicopters and aircraft to try to fire missiles equals dead meat.) And the SSGNs (Charlies and Oscars) were usually noisier than their SSN/SSK counterparts, right?

And come to think of it, I find it hard to believe that wakehomers are really worth all the hype. Hard as hell to use properly, and just as you've set up a shot on a juicy CVN some twerp in his FFG decides to play the hero and cross the carrier's wake, messing up the wakehoming sensor and maybe sacrificing a frigate to save the carrier, since everybody to that point will have heard the torpedo. Yeah, I know, purely theoretical, but it's a way to waste your 65-76 shots, besides the inefficient search pattern (then again, with the Kit you don't need fuel efficiency).

But regarding some of those torpedoes...why didn't the Sovs just settle on a standardized model? Maybe it's the packrat mentality and that, but why would anyone keep SAET-50/60s and SET-53s around when they have the newer torps?

BTW, another piece of info on Russian weaps, their 76mm gun here.

Of particular note:

Originally Posted by NavWeaps

This weapon is considered effective against missiles and during trials it consistently shot down Falanga ATGMs (AT-2 Swatter) simulating Harpoon ASMs. On average it took 25 rounds per missile.

That's pretty good for a 76mm, although I remember the Italians doing the same thing with specially adapted sabots for their Oto-Melaras. However, this is particularly interesting: the most advanced version of the Falanga (AT-2 Swatter-C) had a max range of 4000m, a bit like a radio-guided subsonic version of the TOW. Someone behind the missile has to launch and guide it, and trying to guide a missile while some Navy madman is spewing 76mm in your direction at 4000m... You might be able to get around that with a remote platform, but that's a pretty good performance for a 3-inch gun!

And thanks for the worldview, kinda helps me understand the situation with all those Russian weapons.