SAM Interception over Sevastopol

A little video here about a SAM interception made over Sevastopol harbor. Video of the contrail of the missile and photos emerged on social media. So, the SAM was fired from a Russian warship moored at its anchorage at Sevastopol harbor. The target was likely a drone of some description---though Ukrainian aircraft can feasibly hit Sevastopol, it seems very foolhardy to send say, a SU-25 on attack mission on a well defended harbor for little gain. The Tochka-U missile lacks the range to hit Sevastopol. The Neptune, feasibly can hit near Sevastopol, but to me it would be a waste of a valuable resource to try, given the liklihood of a much needed missile being shot down. So, it was more than likely a drone.

So, a ship would have been moored but on standby and high alert. Allowing for a quick response to identify the target, get authoritisation from the operator to fire and then intercept.

Now, I don’t have info on what ships are currently moored in Sevastopol.

But it could be the Ladnyy, Pytlivvy, Admiral Essen or Aadmieral Makarov. All are frigates with anti-air capabilities.

So, what would the drone be doing this far out? It could have been just a bog standard surveillance flight, monitoring the Russian fleet or finding their firing positions. It could have been a probe of the Russian defences—fly a recon drone over and see Russia’s reaction time or where the SAM launches are from or if they are capable of hitting drones and the like. Of course, it’s also possible it might not have been Ukrainian at all. It could easily have been a civilian drone which went too close to the base, or even a misidentified russian aircraft. I doubt we will ever know.

But, I thought it was interesting to see that 1 – sevastopol is protected by active SAMs. 2 - The frigates, even when moored, look to be still on high alert. 3 – The sams are capable of hitting targets.