OOOPS - Those are RUSSIAN Warships

[dales]

http://www.navytimes.com/mobile/news/20 ... ute-091112

Menu



Russian ships displayed at DNC tribute to vets


By Sam Fellman - Staff writer
Posted: Tuesday Sep 11, 2012 17:16:10 EDT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the last night of the Democratic National Convention, a retired Navy four-star took the stage to pay tribute to veterans. Behind him, on a giant screen, the image of four hulking warships reinforced his patriotic message.




But there was a big mistake in the stirring backdrop: those are Russian warships.

While retired Adm. John Nathman, a former commander of Fleet Forces Command, honored vets as America’s best, the ships from the Russian Federation Navy were arrayed like sentinels on the big screen above.

These were the very Soviet-era combatants that Nathman and Cold Warriors like him had once squared off against.

“The ships are definitely Russian,” said noted naval author Norman Polmar after reviewing hi-resolution photos from the event. “There’s no question of that in my mind.”

Naval experts concluded the background was a photo composite of Russian ships that were overflown by what appear to be U.S. trainer jets. It remains unclear how or why the Democratic Party used what’s believed to be images of the Russian Black Sea Fleet at their convention.

A spokesman for the Democratic National Convention Committee was not able to immediately comment Tuesday, saying he had to track down personnel to find out what had happened.

The veteran who spotted the error and notified Navy Times said he was immediately taken aback.

“I was kind of in shock,” said Rob Barker, 38, a former electronics warfare technician who left the Navy in 2006. Having learned to visually identify foreign ships by their radars, Barker recognized the closest ship as the Kara-class cruiser Kerch.

“An immediate apology [from the committee] would be very nice,” Barker said. “Maybe acknowledge the fact that yes, they screwed up.”

The background — featured in the carefully choreographed hour leading up to the president’s Sept. 6 speech accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination — showed four ships with radar designs not used in the U.S. fleet.

For example, the ship in the foreground, on the far right, has a square radar antenna at the top of its masthead. That is the MR-700 Podberezovik 3-D early warning radar, commonly identified as “Flat Screen” for its appearance, a three-dimensional early warning radar mounted on the Kerch, said Eric Wertheim, editor of “Combat Fleets of the World.”

Similarly, the third ship has a MR-310 “Head Net” air search radar, shaped like two off-set bananas, at its masthead and is mostly likely the guided missile destroyer Smetlivyy. The first two ships seem to be Krivak-class frigates, but it’s hard to discern from the silhouette, experts said.

But the fact they are Russian ships is not in doubt. In addition to the ship’s radar arrays and hulls, which are dissimilar from U.S. warships, the photo features one more give-away: a large white flag with a blue ‘X’ at the ships’ sterns.

Polmar, who authored “The Naval Institute Guide to the Soviet Navy,” recognized the blue ‘X’-mark: “The X is the Cross of St. Andrew’s, which is a Russian Navy symbol,” Polmar said. (An anchored U.S. warship, by contrast, flies the American flag on its stern.)

Based on this specific group of these ship types, one naval expert concluded that this was most likely a photo of the Black Sea Fleet.

“Ships are all Black Sea Fleet,” A. D. Baker III, a retired Office of Naval Intelligence analyst, told Navy Times after looking at the image. “These four ships, at the time the photo was taken, constituted the entire major surface combatant component of the Black Sea Fleet,” Baker said, noting the photo was likely to be six years old or older. (The Kerch is now on the list to be scrapped, Baker said.)

Barker, the former sailor who first spotted the errors, believes the seven aircraft streaking by are F-5 jets, a trainer used by the U.S. Navy. Asked to explain how he reached that conclusion, the former airplane spotter ticked off a list: “Twin engine, single rudder, with hard points on the wingtips, with that silhouette is going to make them F-5s.”

[oldr_n_wsr]

Better red than dead.

[Grim Reaper]

Looks like somebody screwed up, probably using Google Images to find a bunch of pretty pictures.

Here is a nice big picture of the Kerch.

Interesting, it appears to be a photoshopped image too.

This appears to be the original. The ships match up, but there's no planes in the background.

[liberty]

Better red than dead.

No you commie, better dead than red!

[Sue U]

Hahahaha, stoopid Democrats and their stoopid graphics consultants. They could have lifted a virtually identical image off the US Navy's own website:



However, now they have shown that not only are they incompetent, they also hate America and wish for Soviet domination. But too late, suckers! So the joke's on you!

[Gob]

That's a great one for "It'll be all right on the night"

[dales]

They issued an apology..........http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09 ... e-to-vets/

[Rick]

When I was on The Lockwood this is what used to shadow us from time to time:



You almost hear it say "Vee vant yur luunch"...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Hahahaha, stoopid Democrats and their stoopid graphics consultants. They could have lifted a virtually identical image off the US Navy's own website:



However, now they have shown that not only are they incompetent, they also hate America and wish for Soviet domination. But too late, suckers! So the joke's on you!

You'd think they'd have realized they were Russian ships - sailing to the left and from front to back. Whereas those good USA ships are properly moving forward and to the right.

Meade

[Rick]

Even still those are not cold war era US Naval ships.

I can't read all the hull numbers but they appear to be Ticonderoga-Class Cruisers which did not start showing up until the LATE 80's.

What "Cold War Era" ships that still happen to exist are probably owned by Taiwan.

The rest are probably Hyundais...

[dales]

Where's the USS Pueblo?


From wiki:

USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is an American ELINT and SIGINT[1] Banner-class technical research ship (Navy intelligence) which was boarded and captured by North Korean forces on 23 January 1968, in what is known as the Pueblo incident or alternatively as the Pueblo crisis or the Pueblo affair. Occurring less than a week after President Lyndon B. Johnson's State of the Union Address and only weeks before the Tet Offensive, it was a major incident in the Cold War.

North Korea stated that it strayed into their territorial waters, but the United States maintains that the vessel was in international waters at the time of the incident.

Pueblo, still held by North Korea today, officially remains a commissioned vessel of the United States Navy.[2] It is currently moored along the Taedong River in Pyongyang, where it is used as a museum ship. It is the only ship of the U.S. Navy currently being held captive.

[Sue U]

Even still those are not cold war era US Naval ships.

I can't read all the hull numbers but they appear to be Ticonderoga-Class Cruisers which did not start showing up until the LATE 80's.

The lead ship is a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, the USS Philippine Sea, CG-58. Behind it are three destroyers: the USS Donald Cook, DDG-75, the USS John Paul Jones, DDG-53, and I can't make out the hull number on the last one.

[oldr_n_wsr]

good eyes.

[Sue U]

My computer has a magnifcation feature. Also, ship identification is often part of my job.

[oldr_n_wsr]

My computer has a magnifcation feature. Also, ship identification is often part of my job.

Cheater.

[Gob]

Also, ship identification is often part of my job.

In the UK there was a name for young women who waited for ships to come into port...

...it slips my mind now.....

[Sue U]

Y'know, as I hit the send button, I realized I was setting up that joke, but I honestly thought it would be LJ who would make it. So two points to you, Gob.

[Gob]

Cheers Sue!

[Rick]

Even still those are not cold war era US Naval ships.

I can't read all the hull numbers but they appear to be Ticonderoga-Class Cruisers which did not start showing up until the LATE 80's.

The lead ship is a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, the USS Philippine Sea, CG-58. Behind it are three destroyers: the USS Donald Cook, DDG-75, the USS John Paul Jones, DDG-53, and I can't make out the hull number on the last one.

Good eye

Even still that would make the DDGs Arleigh Burkes also too young to be part of the "Cold War" fleet.

Just Sayin

[Rick]

Maybe they shoulda used some pictures of these...