SEVASTOPOL, November 13. /TASS/. The ships of the Black Sea Fleet’s Novorossiysk naval base and air defense forces of Russia’s Southern Military District struck a notional enemy’s cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles in drills, the Fleet’s press office reported on Wednesday.

"In accordance with the 2019 combat training plan, the crews of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet’s Novorossiysk naval base held joint drills with air defense troops of the Southern Military District under the general command of Novorossiysk Naval Base Commander Rear Admiral Viktor Kochemazov," the press office said in a statement.

"Under the drills’ scenario, the ships’ air defense squads were to detect a notional enemy’s low-flying targets over the Black Sea, automatically transmit data on their parameters to the command post of the air defense large unit and be ready to fire shipborne missile and artillery weapons independently against the spotted adversary objects," the statement says.

The ships’ crews successfully accomplished the tasks of detecting, locking onto and tracking low-flying targets while the air defense units made electronic launches against the adversary objects, the press office said.

The drills involved the oceanic minesweeper Zheleznyakov, the anti-submarine warfare ship Eisk, the patrol vessel Dmitry Rogachev and also air defense forces stationed on the Black Sea coast in the southern Krasnodar Region. A fighter plane from the Southern Military District’s Air Force and Air Defense Army simulated the enemy during the drills.

The drills practiced interoperability of the Novorossiysk naval base’s ships and air defense units in their joint efforts to repel strikes by a notional enemy’s cruise missiles and drones.