Comparison: Russian Navy Slava-class and US Navy Ticonderoga-class Cruisers in Combat
Analysis by Konstantin Sivkov, Ph.D. (military sciences)
Military expert Konstantin Sivkov, a member of the Russian Academy of Rocket, Missile and Artillery Sciences, Ph.D. (military sciences), has assessed a hypothetical battle between a Russian Navy Project 1164 Atlant-class (NATO reporting name: Slava-class) missile cruiser and a US Navy Ticonderoga-class cruiser. The calculation has been performed for each of the compared ships. It has covered all of the missions considered and possible courses of action, and the calculation of an integral effectiveness index of the ships.
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The best way for the Moskva to hit an aircraft carrier is to come within the range of her antiship missiles and fire off a salvo. In such a case, she will certainly deliver a strike against the main body of the carrier strike group (the carrier and three or four screening ships), other conditions being equal. A 16-missile salvo will be countered with multichannel AD systems, fighters on combat air patrol and EW systems. As many as two missiles can be downed by the fighters. The enemy formation’s total AD capability (7-8 to 10-12 units) will eliminate 70-80% of the remaining incoming missiles. The EW gear will reduce their hit probability by 50-60% more. Thus, one or two missiles will reach the carrier at best, i.e. the salvo’s probability of rendering a carrier inefficient equals 0.2.
In a meeting engagement, the Moskva’s chances for hitting the carrier will be much more poor, maybe, nonexistent at all, because the carrier will not allow the Russian cruiser to get within range for a salvo (for this reason, submarines and naval bombers will play the key part in dealing with CVBGs, by the way). The Russian cruiser will be far more effective against surface action forces. Attacking a surface strike force of 2-3 destroyers and guided missile frigates, she can render inefficient or send to the bottom of the sea up to two enemy ships while being invulnerable to them owing to her longer-range weapons. A strike against an amphibious landing task force or a convoy will destroy three to four of the ships, i.e. the Moskva’s combat effectiveness in a battle like that is estimated at 0.3-0.5.
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