KALININGRAD, March 27. /TASS/. Combat teams of the Baltic Fleet’s Bastion coastal defense missile systems practiced deploying launchers on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, ferreting out and eliminating enemy targets during drills in the Leningrad Region in Russia’s northwest, the Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.
"Following a training alert signal, an on-duty battalion of Bastion mobile coastal defense missile systems from the Fleet’s Leningrad naval base promptly departed from its permanent base, conducted a march to the deployment area and assumed positions on the coast of the Gulf of Finland," the press office said in a statement.
At the Bastion launch sites, the missile troops ferreted out targets in the Baltic Sea using radio-technical equipment and conducted electronic launches of Oniks anti-ship missiles against a simulated enemy naval group. After changing their positions and reloading the launchers, the Bastion squads practiced sole and multiple electronic launches against a notional enemy’s command posts and airfields located at a considerable distance, the press office said.
"The data recording equipment showed maximally accurate operations by the missile squads," it said.
The drills involved about 50 personnel and around 10 weapon systems, the press office said.
The Bastion anti-ship missile system was engineered by the Research and Production Association of Machine-Building and is outfitted with an Oniks supersonic anti-ship homing missile. The Bastion coastal defense system is designated to defend the coastline over 600 km long and is capable of striking adversary surface ships of various types operating as part of amphibious assault formations, surface action and carrier strike groups, and also eliminating sole warships and radio-contrast ground targets under intensive enemy fire and jamming.