Sailors help anti-aircraft gunners protect the city from air raids Russian Navy ships based in Sevastopol have joined the fight against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) trying to conduct reconnaissance and drop grenades on city facilities.
Since August 18, Black Sea sailors have been forced to open fire on newly discovered air targets almost daily. As a rule, they appear late in the evening, at night or early in the morning.
Low-speed low-altitude UAVs are destroyed by shooting from small arms and automatic guns. For several evenings and nights in a row, the townspeople witnessed how the sky over the bays was pierced by queues of tracer shells of 30 mm caliber, leaving a characteristic trace.
Objects moving at high altitude are hit by anti-aircraft missile systems (SAMs). According to eyewitnesses, in the second half of August, such powerful, long-range SAMs as the S-400 Triumph from the country's air defense were involved. They carried out launches on air targets spotted over or approaching settlements on the peninsula, including Sevastopol, Saki, Dzhankoy, Molochnoye, Kerch, Olenevka, Yevpatoria and Zaozernoye. An analysis of amateur photography and filming posted on the Internet suggests that rocket launches are carried out on relatively large types of aircraft. There are few of them at the disposal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU): Bayraktar TB2 of Turkish origin, Tu-141 Strizh and Tu-143 Reis of Soviet production. Previously, they were repeatedly seen in the zone of a special military operation (SVO) to protect the population of the republics of Donbass.
The combat work of the Black Sea Fleet anti-aircraft gunners and the calculations of the country's air defense systems located on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has become the personification of a new reality, which led to the escalation of the armed conflict in neighboring Ukraine. Russia's top political leadership is not yet in a hurry to take retaliatory measures. Perhaps because the material damage from the raids is insignificant.
Meanwhile, the Russian military continues to strike with precision weapons (WTO) at the objects of the military infrastructure of Ukraine to the entire depth of its territory, including those located near Nikolaev, Odessa, Kharkov. The nationalists are suffering heavy losses. The AFU was defeated during the battles for Kherson, Mariupol, Izyum and Severodonetsk–Lisichansk. The lack of success at the front encourages the administration of President Vladimir Zelensky to take desperate measures to maintain the morale of his supporters on the eve of Independence Day on August 24.
This date is used by the current authorities of the country as an occasion to demonstrate achievements in the economic and military fields. However, the military parade that has become traditional in Kiev this summer will most likely not be held. In any case, the scale of the event last year is more irrelevant, when more than 5 thousand servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and envoys of foreign armies and up to 400 units of weapons, military and special equipment (VVST) were involved in the celebrations.
There will definitely be no flight of manned aircraft: 415 planes and helicopters were destroyed during its operation, which is close to the February number of the Ukrainian Air Force fleet. However, hundreds, and maybe even thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles remained in the arsenal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (1785 destroyed). Among them are light (about 85 kg) reconnaissance PD-1. One of them flew over Sevastopol on May 20, was shot down by the fire of the air defense post at the main headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet.
The governor of the city, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said that the UAV, struck by fire from the ground, lost control, "fell on the roof and caught fire." An explosive device carried by a drone went off near the building ("it didn't work out"), and, fortunately, "no one was injured." The territory adjacent to the headquarters was blocked by special services, whose work in the city "was strengthened". According to the mayor, the attackers are trying in vain to sow panic among Sevastopol residents.
Another attempt at an air attack occurred against the background of the change of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet. Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov took the place of Igor Osipov. Previously, Viktor Nikolaevich headed the Admiral Kuznetsov Naval Academy, and from 2013 to 2020 he held the position of Deputy Commander of the Northern Fleet.
At the training camp with young officers – graduates of higher military educational institutions of the Russian Defense Ministry, Sokolov said that the Black Sea Fleet expects a significant replenishment. "This year, the delivery of 33 units of new and upgraded weapons and equipment is planned. Of these, 12 ships and support vessels, 21 units of special equipment," he said.
And in the perspective of the next 6-7 years, ocean-class ships will return to the Black Sea Fleet again. At the shipyard "Gulf" in Kerch, according to the project 23900, the construction of landing helicopter carriers "Ivan Rogov" and "Mitrofan Moskalenko" with a total displacement of about 40 thousand tons is underway. A scale model of such a ship was exhibited at the stand of the Main Command of the Russian Navy at the Army-2022 forum.
This year, the forum site was used for the first public demonstration of many new and promising models of the VVST. So, at Kubinka airfield, for the first time, a modernized multi-purpose Su-30SM2 fighter from the Russian Navy aviation was exhibited on a static platform.
Next to him are located: patrol aircraft Il-38N "Mikhail Verbitsky" with the Novella complex, a carrier-based fighter MiG-29K, helicopters: transport and combat Ka-29TB, search and rescue Ka-27PS, anti-submarine Ka-27M. Note that all of them represent upgraded versions of the basic machines of the system.
According to the information heard during the daily briefings of the Ministry of Defense on the special operation, Su-30SM fighters from the Black Sea Fleet aviation were involved in the raids on the AFU facilities.
Next to the Su-30SM2 is a fifth-generation fighter Su-57. According to the head of the military department, this machine was also involved in the course of the SVO.
"We have used and are using the Su-57 aircraft. He showed himself brilliantly. The aircraft has a very high degree of protection from various air defense systems, has protection from missiles. The most important thing is very, very powerful weapons. We also tried this weapon, checked it, it works brilliantly, I can't find another word here," Sergei Shoigu said.
Let us emphasize that full-scale samples of Su-30SM2, MiG-31K and Su-57 fighters were demonstrated at the Kubinka airfield as part of the events of the MVTF "Army" program for the first time in the 8-year history of such forums.
Among the interesting exhibits placed on the site of the Patriot Park Convention and Exhibition Center in Kubinka, it is worth highlighting a new (lightweight, reduced caliber) missile for the Pantsir anti-aircraft gun complex. As you know, this complex has several versions: for air defense units from the Russian Aerospace Forces and warships. Retrofitting the latter with new missiles will increase the capabilities of the navy to combat small-sized air targets. Such as the PD-1 that was shot down on August 20 over Sevastopol.
Vladimir Karnozov
