Ammo-loaded Russian Landing Ship Blown-up in Ukrainian Missile Attack

The Russian large landing ship, “Novocherkassk,” possibly loaded with ammunition, was damaged in a missile attack probably by a MBDA SCALP EG in the port of Feodosiya, Crimea on Monday night.

“Tonight, while repelling an attack by the Ukrainian armed forces with the use of aircraft guided missiles at the Feodosiya base, the large landing ship Novocherkassk was damaged,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

“During the anti-aircraft battle, two enemy tactical aircraft Su-24 were destroyed by air defense systems in the area of the village of Zhovten (125 km northeast of Nikolaev), launching aircraft guided missiles,” the report said.

Pro-Russian Telegram channel, “Russian Weapons” said, “during the attack on the large landing ship Project 775 "Novocherkassk", low-altitude flight profiles were loaded into the inertial navigation modules of the SCALP-EG stealth missiles, skirting the southern slopes and ridges of the Crimean Mountains.”

This trajectory ensured the most effective concealment of missiles behind the "screen" of the terrain from the radar patterns of the S-400 "Triumph" air defense systems, as well as the S-300V4 and "Buk-M3", located mainly in the lowlands to the north of the mountains, from where the airspace can be scanned at low altitudes difficult in areas above the mountains.

And even if the surveillance radars of individual air defense systems near Ordzhonikidze and Koktebel were able to detect SCALP-EG missiles flying towards Feodosia, there was very little time left to establish their route, capture and intercept them until they were hidden behind the mountain ranges.

All these anti-aircraft missile systems were detected and identified in advance by American and British RQ-4B "Global Hawk" strategic radar reconnaissance UAVs patrolling over the Black Sea a day earlier.

Consequently, the viewing sectors of their radars were taken into account when constructing missile flight routes.