KALININGRAD, August 26. /TASS/. The combat teams of the Baltic Fleet’s Bastion coastal defense missile systems practiced striking enemy surface ships in drills on the Baltic coast of Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad Region, the Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.
"The combat teams of Bastion coastal defense missile systems practiced assignments to detect and track notional targets, and also performed electronic missile launches, notionally destroying precision weapon ‘carriers’ represented by the simulated enemy’s surface ships," the press office said in a statement.
The drills involved over 100 personnel and 10 items of military and special hardware, the statement reads.
In addition to accomplishing combat training measures, the Baltic Fleet’s coastal defense troops are on constant alert to protect and defend the maritime borders and the coastline of the Kaliningrad Region, the press office stressed.
The Bastion coastal defense system with standardized Yakhont (Oniks) supersonic homing anti-ship cruise missiles went into service with the Russian troops in 2010. The Bastion is designated to strike various types of surface ships operating as part of amphibious assault formations, convoys, surface action and carrier strike groups, and also single ships and radar-contrast land targets under enemy intensive fire and electronic counter-measures.
According to the data of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Russian Navy currently operates over 40 Bastion coastal defense systems. Specifically, they are deployed in Crimea, on the Kotelny Island (the Novosibirsk Archipelago), in the Kaliningrad Region, in Syria and on Kamchatka.
A Bastion battalion is capable of defending a coastline stretching over 600km. The Bastion can fire Oniks missiles to a range of 500km. The firing positions can be moved away from the coastline by 200km. The system’s ammunition load can include up to 36 missiles.