KALININGRAD, February 8. /TASS/. The Baltic Fleet's small missile ships The Sovetsk and The Grad, armed with Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles, have practiced measures to repulse a hypothetical enemy's air attacks and conduct missile and artillery strikes on sea and coastal targets.

"At the first stage of the exercise in the Baltic Sea, crews of the Sovetsk and Grad small missile ships fired A-190 and AK-630 artillery systems at simulated air targets and special flares," the news release said. Also, fire was conducted at small sea targets simulating uncrewed boats and targets simulating enemy warships.

"At the final stage of the exercise, specialists of the missile and artillery combat crews carried out massive strikes with cruise missiles against sea and coastal targets at a considerable distance, conducting electronic missile launches with Kalibr-NK systems," the fleet’s press service said. During the combat exercises security in the area was maintained by ships of the Baltic Fleet.

The Sovetsk is a small missile ship of project 22800 Karakurt. The ships of this project, developed by the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau, are multi-purpose missile and artillery sea-going vessels possessing high seaworthiness and controllability parameters. The ships carry a complex of high-accuracy missile weapons, including Kalibr-NK cruise missiles.

Small missile ships of Project 21631 (including The Grad) are multipurpose ships with greater displacement and equipped with the most modern artillery, missile, antiaircraft and radio-technical weapons. The ships' water-jet propulsion system enables them to operate in shallow waters. The ship's 30-mm automatic artillery system is capable of destroying enemy airplanes, helicopters and other means of air attack, as well as small-size naval surface and ground targets at a considerable distance from the coastline.