The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation showed video footage of the launch of Kalibr sea-based cruise missiles from the frigate of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The shooting was carried out in a volley. Judging by the published footage, early in the morning. Four rockets one after another went into the sky and quickly disappeared over the horizon.
The plot is accompanied by a short comment. It is said that the launch of the Calibres was carried out during a special military operation. The strike was carried out on the army facilities of Ukraine.
A little earlier, the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said that four fuel and lubricants storage bases in the areas of the settlements of Nikolaev, Zaporozhye, Kharkov and Chuguev were destroyed by high-precision air and sea-based missiles during the night. From there, fuel was supplied to the Ukrainian groups of troops near Kharkov, Nikolaev and in the Donbas.
Recall that our defense department has repeatedly reported on the use of long-range sea cruise missiles "Caliber" during a special military operation. They were allowed in the course when it was necessary to destroy an important military or industrial facility of Ukraine, located hundreds of kilometers from the front edge.
Actually, the Kalibr is not a single missile, but a whole family of high-precision cruise munitions designed for different purposes and having different power, principle of operation and method of placement. For example, the 3M14 ship missile (it was used to destroy terrorists in Syria in October 2015 by the crews of the ships of the Caspian Flotilla Dagestan, Grad Sviyazhsk, Uglich and Veliky Ustyug) has, according to various sources, a range of up to 2.6 thousand kilometers.
And the 3M54 ammunition used on diesel-electric submarines of the 636.3 Varshavyanka project shoots, according to some estimates, at 400 kilometers. The Black Sea submariners also tested it on terrorists operating in Syria and made sure that the NATO members did not call this rocket "Sizzler" - "incinerator" for nothing.
Experts know another ability of the marine "Caliber" - it easily overcomes the powerful enemy air defense system. This is achieved due to the flight of the missile at an extremely low altitude and the autonomy of its guidance to the target in the "silence" mode on the main section of the trajectory. Navigation in the "Caliber" - and this is up to a dozen and a half reference points - is laid such that the missile can approach an enemy object from almost any direction.
As for the accuracy of the hit, the expression "hits the bull's-eye" is appropriate here. For example, it is known that the export version of the "Caliber" shoots at 300 kilometers and destroys a target with a diameter of 1-2 meters. It is clear that the missiles used in our Navy have even higher accuracy characteristics. And the range of application of the "Caliber", it seems, will soon increase noticeably. According to TASS, a promising Kalibr-M cruise missile is currently being developed for the Navy, capable of delivering a warhead weighing about a ton at a distance of more than 4.5 thousand kilometers.
Yuri Gavrilov