US Deployed Destroyer With Tomahawks To Southern Russia Engagement Range
- 7.02.2023, 16:47
USS Nitze is armed with nearly a hundred cruise missiles.
The United States moved a naval vessel to the entrance to the Black Sea amid reports of preparations for a new Russian offensive in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin's threats to respond "not only with armoured vehicles" to the supply of Western tanks to Kyiv, according to The Moscow Times.
.
The destroyer USS Nitze is a part of the George H.W. Bush supercarrier’s strike group. The warship approached the entrance to the Bosphorus and dropped anchor near Istanbul, according to USNI News citing vessel tracking data and reports from the Press Service of the US 6th Fleet.
USS Nitze (DDG-94) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. It is armed with nearly a hundred cruise missiles, and it has become the first US warship to enter the Black Sea region since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Montreux Convention does not allow the US fleet to pass directly into the Black Sea. Turkey closes the Bosphorus and Dardanelles for warships not assigned to Black Sea ports during hostilities, according to the convention.
However, while near Istanbul, USS Nitze is able to target Crimea, the war zone in Donbas, as well as southern Russian regions, including the Krasnodar Region and the Rostov Region, with missiles.
Crimea (500 km), Sochi, where Putin's residence Bocharov Ruchey is located (600 km), as well as Rostov-on-Don (1100 km) are within the engagement range the Tomahawk missiles, capable of destroying targets at a distance of up to 1300 km.
USS Nitze has 96 Tomahawk launchers, which in turn can be equipped with both conventional and thermonuclear warheads. The W80 warhead for the Tomahawk, ranging from 5 to 150 kilotons, belongs to the tactical class of nuclear weapons and has been produced in the United States since the late 1970s.
The goal of the US Navy's mission in the Mediterranean region is "to work closely with NATO partners", according to Rear Admiral Dennis Velez, the commander of the Carrier Strike Group, USS Nitze is one of their warships. He commented on a visit to Turkey. He added that the US military is ready to "deter" and, if necessary, "protect" the North Atlantic Alliance.
The United States stepped up its naval presence off European coasts in August by sending a second carrier to the Mediterranean, currently deployed near Greece.
The move of the destroyer to the Bosphorus came shortly after US intelligence showed that the Kremlin was preparing for a new escalation of hostilities in Ukraine, planning to send hundreds of thousands of mobilized troops on the offensive, and, if necessary, to mobilize up to 200,000 more people.