Russian fleet in the Mediterranean

August 2013

 * Russia sends warships to Mediterranean as Syria tension rises – Timothy Heritage / REUTER, Aug 29, 2013

September 2013

 * Russian destroyer enters east Mediterranean to head task force – report – RT, September 04, 2013
 * Russia Boosts Mediterranean Force as U.S. Mulls Syria Strike – Jake Rudnitsky & Henry Meyer, Sep 4, 2013
 * Very short bullet style news update – The Saker, Sept 6, 2013
 * Russia dispatches warship with "special cargo" to Syria's coast – Al Akhbar, Sept 6, 2013
 * TACTICAL UPDATE + MAPS + Lots of INFO: Standoff in the Mediterranean, US vs RUSSIAN Navies & more...
 * Russia sent ships to evacuate its citizens from Syria ahead of U.S. strike – WorldTribune.com, September 10, 2013
 * Russia’s ‘carrier-killer’ Moskva enters Mediterranean – RT, September 11, 2013

Nuclear warheads

 * Russia went on war alert over missile test – F. MICHAEL MALOOF, WND, September 10, 2013
 * “Disparity in high-tech naval warfare capabilities between the U.S. and Russian fleets is no guarantee that an attack on Syria will not escalate into a wider war that includes Russia,” according to a report of the open source intelligence entity Langley Intelligence Group Network, or Lignet.


 * “Russian military doctrine has a solution for any technological advantages enjoyed by U.S. forces: striking first,” the Lignet report said. “Indeed, the Russian military doctrine of ‘de-escalation’ calls for prevailing in and terminating a regional conflict by the early use of nuclear weapons to defeat the adversary – usually the United States, in military writings – and to cow the enemy into submission by this Russian version of ‘shock and awe,’” the report said.


 * Sources say that some of the Russian warships deployed to Syria have tactical nuclear weapons, although the U.S. has dismantled its tactical nuclear weapons.


 * For example, the Moskva guided-missile cruiser heading to Syria carries 16 surface-to-surface N-12 cruise missiles, each of which carries a 350-kiloton warhead, sources say.


 * “A Russian navy armed with nuclear weapons is more than a match for a U.S. Navy with no nuclear weapons, especially if the United States is lulled into complacency by the false calculus that high technology equals invulnerability,” the report added.

I do not think Russia would need nuclear warheads to sink or destroy the US fleet. Sinking US aircraft carriers is what the Soviet Navy was designed to do. The tactical nukes are there not for offence, but for defense – in case the US Navy tries to counter attack. The presence of the nukes gives the Russia the backbone whereby they can launch offensive action against the US, even if the US fleet may seem bigger and more powerful.

P.S. – Wikipedia claims that "currently only the conventional version [of the P-500 Bazalt] remains in service" -- Petri Krohn (talk) 09:40, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Speculation

 * Syria: Former CIA Analyst predicts another False Flag Attack – M. Klostermayr / Syrianews.cc, September 8, 2013
 * The ex-CIA analyst, Ray McGovern, even said that such a staged attack on US destroyers at the coast of Syria could already happen in the upcoming days. This would underline the fears and predictions of other political analysts and experts in the events in the Middle East and developments of such planned wars.


 * Ex-CIA analyst predicts ‘false flag’ attack on US destroyers off Syria coast – PressTV, September 8, 2013