SEVASTOPOL, March 23. /TASS/. The crews of the Black Sea Fleet’s frigates Admiral Makarov and Admiral Essen held a training battle with a group of a notional enemy’s warships during drills in the Black Sea, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.
"Under the drills’ scenario, the Black Sea Fleet’s coastal defense reconnaissance systems detected an unidentified unmanned aerial vehicle that made a flight over the Fleet’s facilities. The drone’s tracking helped register its landing on a helipad of a notional enemy’s ship," the press office said in a statement.
The Black Sea Fleet’s command has assigned the frigates staying at sea the task of urgently moving to the designated area and preventing new attempts of drone flights. The crews of the Admiral Makarov and the Admiral Essen that arrived at the scene detected a group of the simulated enemy’s surface ships. Upon coming closer to them, the frigates "were attacked," the statement says.
"The frigates’ combat teams engaged in a sea battle and repelled a missile attack with air defense systems, also staging active and passive electronic countermeasures. Further on, the teams of shipborne missile and artillery combat compartments on both frigates practiced the algorithm of measures for eliminating the simulated enemy’s surface targets by missile armament and artillery," the press office specified.
The frigates’ combat training continues and the next stage will involve joint drills of the crews and pilots of the Black Sea Fleet’s naval aviation and air defense forces, the statement says.
The frigates like the Admiral Makarov and the Admiral Essen represent a new series of Project 11356R/M naval ships (the Project 11357 designation is also used). These frigates are designed to destroy enemy surface ships and vessels, submarines and ground installations, carry out patrols and defend sea lanes.
The frigates of this Project are armed with eight launchers of Kalibr-NK cruise missiles that are capable of striking surface, coastal and underwater targets at a distance of up to 2,600 km.
The warships of this Project are also armed with Shtil-1, Palash and AK-630M air defense missile and artillery systems, A-190 100mm versatile artillery guns, torpedo tubes and RBU-6000 rocket launchers. The frigates also have a take-off and landing strip and a hangar for an anti-submarine warfare helicopter (Ka-27 or Ka-31).