Ukraine is hunting for Russia’s `Fire Dragon` S-400 in Crimea?

(Dan Tri) – Ukraine is increasing pressure on Russia in Crimea and appears to be hunting for advanced S-400 air defense systems with improved anti-ship cruise missiles to attack the mainland.

Screenshot of the explosion that Ukraine said was the moment the Russian S-400 complex in Crimea was destroyed on August 23 (Photo: Newsweek).

The improved Neptune anti-ship missile destroyed an S-400 Triumf air defense system near Olenivka in western Crimea on August 23, and caused damage to the launcher and surface-to-air missiles, according to officials.

On September 14, another Russian S-400 system was damaged in a cruise missile and drone (UAV) raid in Yevpatoriya, also located in western Crimea.

Two consecutive raids raise the question of whether Ukraine is hunting for the advanced S-400 air defense system in Crimea with an improved Neptune missile?

Twice Neptune suspected it hit the S-400

The S-400 is a long-range mobile surface-to-air missile system, capable of intercepting aircraft and ballistic missiles within a range of 300km.

With a price of 600 million USD/unit, the S-400 is one of the most expensive air defense systems in Russia’s military arsenal.

In contrast, Ukraine’s R-360 Neptune subsonic cruise missile costs only a fraction of the S-400, even at low production scale before the conflict broke out in February 2022.

It was the Neptune missile that Ukraine claimed was the weapon that sank the Black Sea Fleet’s flagship Moscow in April 2022.

Part of the S-400 air defense complex in Moscow in 2018 (Photo: Dmitriy Fomin).

Neptune was originally designed by Ukraine for anti-ship purposes, but was later supplemented with a GPS navigation system, allowing the missile to be brought to the approximate coordinates of the target.

According to Business Insider, this design (known as DSMAC or ATR) makes it more difficult for Russian forces to jam signals or detect missiles, because it does not rely on GPS signals to guide the missile to its target.

Currently, the Ukrainian side has not released specific information about the S-400 raids.

Ukrainian forces then programmed Neptune’s flight path and other parameters to bypass Russian reconnaissance systems.

For the raid on September 14, War Zone reported that Ukraine first used UAVs to attack the S-400’s reconnaissance radar and clear the way for the missile.

A Neptune missile test in April 2020 (Photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine).

The raids on Crimea will not stop

Ukraine’s raids underscore the series of challenges Russia faces in defending its territory and areas it controls, even as it has largely successfully delayed Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive.

According to Breaking Defense, a problem for Russia is that its military is spreading its modern air defense equipment too thinly to deal with attacks by the Ukrainian army, as well as the increasing scope of air strikes.

In addition, the data connection between the Pantsir-S1/2 short-range air defense system and the radar command post of long-range complexes such as the S-400 in Crimea is said to be ineffective.

Ukraine’s two successful raids on Russia’s important air defense system in the past three weeks show that the air defense shield in Crimea may be experiencing systemic problems, the Institute for the Study of War based in Ukraine said.

Fire broke out at the Sevastopol shipyard in a photo shared on Telegram on September 13, suspected to be caused by a Storm Shadow missile (Photo: Telegram).

Kiev will likely not stop with its actions on September 14 because each effective raid will increase the likelihood of success of the next raid, as it weakens the radar and missile support network.

Earlier this year, a senior Ukrainian official hinted that the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, could serve as a testing ground for new weapons.

`Crimea is the territory of Ukraine. We will test and use there any weapons not prohibited by international law to help liberate the territory,` Secretary of the National Defense and Security Council

Of course, Russia will not sit still either.

For example, recently on social networks there were images of Russian fighters and bombers covered with tires.

The more Russia knows about the probes of these missiles, the more adaptable Russia will be.