Weapons help Russian reconnaissance ship shoot down Ukrainian suicide boat

The Ivan Khurs ship is equipped with four 14.5 mm machine gun mounts using incendiary ammunition, which can blow up a Ukrainian suicide boat with one hit.

The Russian Defense Ministry on May 24 released a video showing the crew of the reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs firing a machine gun to stop an unmanned speedboat (USV) carrying explosives that was trying to approach the ship in Turkey's exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea.

In the video , the KPV 14.5 mm machine gun on the Ivan Khurs fired several rounds at the Ukrainian USV maneuvering on the sea surface. One bullet hit the suicide boat at a fairly close range, causing it to explode.

Russia says Ukraine attacked Black Sea gas pipeline protection ship — A suicide boat destroyed by the Ivan Khurs ship in the Black Sea in a video released on May 24. Video: *Zvezda*

"The Ukrainian military failed in its attempt to use three unmanned suicide boats to attack the Ivan Khurs ship of the Black Sea Fleet, which was on patrol to ensure the safety of the TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipelines in Turkey's exclusive economic zone," said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.

On May 26, the Russian military released a video of the reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs returning to the Sevastopol military port intact, without any damage after the attack.

Ivan Khurs is one of two ships of Project 18280, whose main tasks include reconnaissance, signal intelligence data collection, electronic warfare, communications, fleet coordination, missile detection and tracking to support air defense operations.

With a reconnaissance mission, Ivan Khurs is not equipped with heavy combat weapons such as artillery and missiles, but only carries self-defense equipment including 4 MTPU machine gun mounts, Igla and Verba shoulder-fired air defense missiles, and Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

Video of the Ivan Khurs entering port shows that MTPU machine gun mounts are located in the four corners of the superstructure, allowing the gunners to have a 360-degree view of the ship. The area around the mounts is covered with sandbags to protect the gunners from small-caliber bullets and fragments from explosions, and the operators must also wear body armor and bulletproof helmets.

Russia releases video of intact reconnaissance ship returning to port — Russian reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs returns to Sevastopol military port on May 26. Video: *Russian Ministry of Defense*

The MTPU is a fixed mount on many Russian warships for the KPV 14.5 mm heavy machine gun. The machine gun was designed in the 1940s and production lines are still running today.

The KPV machine gun is nearly 2 m long and weighs about 49 kg, uses 14.5x114 mm caliber ammunition, and was originally intended as an infantry weapon. However, the infantry version was discontinued in the 1960s due to its heavy and cumbersome nature. This gun was later widely used on many lines of armored vehicles, naval ships and Russian ZPU anti-aircraft gun platforms.

The naval version of the MTPU with the KPV machine gun is designed to fight surface targets and low-flying aircraft, with an effective range of about 2 km. Each platform is equipped with a 50-round magazine and has a rate of fire of 450 rounds per minute. The gunner can use optical and mechanical scales to aim at the target.

Soldiers operate the MTPU gun mount on the Russian missile frigate Dagestan. Photo: Russian Ministry of Defense — Soldiers operate the MTPU gun mount on the Russian missile frigate Dagestan. Photo: *Russian Ministry of Defense*

The KPV machine gun can use a variety of ammunition, including armor-piercing, incendiary, tracer rounds BZT and high-explosive, incendiary rounds MDZ. These rounds are capable of causing high incendiary effects and activating explosives in the body of the Ukrainian USV, causing them to explode with just one hit.

However, before the USV could be shot down, the KPV gunner fired several rounds that missed the target by quite a distance, apparently due to the movement of the waves causing the aiming line to become unstable. This raised concerns about the risk to the Ivan Khurs if the KPV fired all 50 rounds without being able to shoot down the USV, which has high maneuverability.

Some Russian military bloggers have expressed concerns that the reconnaissance ship is too weakly armed, especially when faced with serious threats like USVs.

"Why is such an expensive and valuable naval vessel as Ivan Khurs only equipped with a few machine gun mounts for self-defense? It seems that Russian naval designers and commanders do not understand that the ships in their fleet will have to go into battle at some point," said Igor Girkin, a former officer of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) who served in the militias in eastern Ukraine.

Vu Anh (According to RIA Novosti, Drive )

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