The sinking of the Russian guided missile cruiser Moskva is both a reminder of the past and a marker for the future. It harkens back to a lesson learned forty years ago. It was in 1982, in the waters around the Falkland Islands, that the ability of anti-ship missiles to destroy modern warships was brought home to much of the world. It was a shock for many to see a not-first-rate military run by the oppressive Argentinian Junta being able to destroy a number of the newest British warships during the Falklands War. Most notably the destroyer HMS Sheffield, which had been commissioned only seven years before, was destroyed after being hit by only one French-made Exocet missile.

In the years since, two things happened to lessen the impact of the loss of the Sheffield - until the destruction of the much larger and more powerful Moskva reminded the public of the vulnerability of surface vessels to anti-ship missiles. Firstly, naval combat moved away from state-to-state war as the focus shifted to counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency. Secondly, the seas were dominated by the United States Navy at its hegemonic best, with such a deep technological and systems superiority that no other power could think about challenging it. When you fight enemies that can't fire back, like the Russia Air Force did in Syria, it gives a rather one-sided picture of the vulnerabilities that may lie in store when you are confronted with an enemy who can.

Now, however, as we enter a new period of great power competition and militaries around the world upgrade their systems, the vulnerability of the surface ship has exploded once again onto the front pages. That is almost certainly a good thing. The Moskva was not some auxiliary warship on the fringes of action. It was the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and the pride of the Russian Navy. Almost three times as large as the Sheffield, the Moskva had recently been modernised and was equipped with the most advance protective systems Russia can provide. Still, this powerful vessel was destroyed by two home grown Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles, which had never been fired in anger before this war and were being operated by a military with little or no maritime expertise.