Emergency mode was introduced in Sevastopol after the ATACMS attack
On June 23, anti-aircraft missile units of the Russian Aerospace Forces struck five ATASMS missiles in the sky over Sevastopol. The wreckage of one of them fell on the beach after detonating the warhead of the missile defense system in the vicinity of the target. Three children and two adults were killed. After the attack, Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev introduced a state of emergency in Sevastopol. How attacks are reflected over urban areas, what is the peculiarity of firing at American ATACMS missiles and what to do so that the tragedy does not happen again, the military observer of the Newspaper understood.En" Mikhail Khodarenok.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, 124 people were injured as a result of the APU attack on Sevastopol, including 27 children, five of them are in serious condition. June 24 has been declared a day of mourning in Sevastopol. The governor of the city, Mikhail Razvozhaev, by his decree introduced a state of emergency in the territory of the city of Sevastopol.
Live shooting over the city
The specifics and details of the events in Sevastopol at this stage can be judged solely in the form of assumptions and versions. Apparently, the anti-aircraft missile divisions of the 12th anti-aircraft Missile Regiment (permanent deployment point - Sevastopol, combat personnel until February 24, 2022 - the command post of the system and two S-400 Triumph air defense systems) of the 31st Air Defense Division of the Russian Aerospace Forces took part in the combat shooting at ATACMS missiles.
The far boundary of the defeat zone for Triumph tactical ballistic missiles is relatively small. In ideal landfill conditions, it is approximately 60 km. In practice, as a rule, the ATACMS damage zone is much smaller, since its dimensions strongly depend on the characteristics of the entrance to the zone of destruction of an anti-aircraft missile system of a tactical ballistic missile, that is, target speed, altitude, sharpness of the entry angles and the so-called heading parameter.
Image source: Alina Dzhus/"Newspaper.Ru"
That is, in the specific conditions of Sevastopol, anti-aircraft missile units will most likely definitely have to fire at the TBR over the city (and without any exaggeration, the south of the peninsula is almost all dense urban development).
Of course, in such conditions, various kinds of restrictions are introduced for combat calculations of anti-aircraft missile forces, for example, launch prohibition zones are assigned, restrictions on the undermining of missile defense combat units by heights are established, etc.
But in some cases it seems difficult to do this. For example, in the conditions of the same Sevastopol, it is difficult to formulate the answer to the question - where the anchorages of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet end and dense urban development begins. And the cover of the fleet forces, for example, is one of the highest priorities of the anti-aircraft missile forces.
Why didn't they declare a missile danger
Of course, during the combat operation of air defense forces and means, it is necessary to declare an air alert and in all possible ways to protect the civilian population, not to allow them to be in open spaces. During the firing of anti-aircraft missiles and air-to-air missiles of fighter aircraft, quite large fragments of both hit targets and remnants/fragments of weapons of destruction - anti-aircraft guided and aviation missiles fall to the ground.
There is no complete atomic decay when detonating missile warheads in the vicinity of targets. Sometimes even relatively poorly damaged aircraft with fuel reserves and unspent ammunition fall.
Therefore, the civilian population should, of course, be in shelters during a raid by enemy air attack means. And in order for this process (sheltering people) to take place quickly and in an organized manner when an air alert is declared, appropriate exercises and training are necessary.
Why this did not happen in this particular case (June 23) is the subject of a separate investigation. But there are also various objective circumstances in this problem.
The ATACMS rocket, we recall, is a high-speed product. The flight speed of this TBR is about 1000 meters per second. The flight time from the moment of launch to the designated target is only a few minutes.
Now imagine how long it will take to get people off any city beach. And it is also very difficult to imagine such exercises at the height of the holiday season.
To this it should be added that the enemy chooses the most favorable time for strikes. And attacks by the enemy are made, as a rule, suddenly (one might say, at the most inopportune moment for the defending side).
So when some representatives of the expert community make hasty and not always justified accusations against the combat calculations of air defense forces and means, military command, civilian leaders, it is probably necessary to fully take into account all the circumstances of what happened. But it is necessary to draw appropriate conclusions and take all necessary measures so that nothing like this happens again.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok
