Found that it helps to take the Ships off to the side of the passage. kill the spy ship and then ID the Russians, when you have a line of fire that isn't going to take out a Green, fire large salvos. take one at a time. if possible dont use your own ships radar. use the F4s and the Hellies you get instead.

The weather isn't the challenge. Its the merchant traffic. Apparently a low free-board tanker ship has a larger radar return than the Kiev. I had 4 TASMs somehow pick up the tiny Soviet picket/spy ship that my Sea Sprite's SSR instead of the massive radar returns of the Kiev and her escorts. Then it happened again with a merchant ship that was off the line of attack by about 90 degrees. The seeker couldn't see the massive signatures in front of it but picked up a merchant farther away. Meanwhile the Soviets can just dump AShM that fly above the commercial traffic and come down on top of you.

Weather makes it a real challenge