Latest news with #Osinttechnical
NDTV
25-05-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
Video: 9 Dead In Ukraine As Russia Launches One Of Biggest Airstrikes On Kyiv
Kyiv: Russia has launched one of the biggest aerial attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv since the start of the war, using missiles and drones, hours after the two sides began exchanging hundreds of prisoners of war in a deal seen as the first step towards a ceasefire. Russian strikes killed at least nine people in Ukraine overnight on Sunday, with four deaths in the Kyiv region, Ukrainian officials said. Russian troops, who are advancing slowly on the eastern front in Ukraine, have captured two settlements in Donetsk region as well as one in Ukraine's northern region of Sumy, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday. Since their failed advance on Kyiv in the first weeks of the war, Russian forces have been focusing on capturing the Donbas in the east, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ukrainian forces likely struck Russia's Migalovo Airbase tonight, with multiple explosions spotted in the area. The base is home to a number of Russian heavy transport aircraft. — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) May 25, 2025 On Saturday, Russia launched 14 ballistic missiles and 250 drones at Ukraine, although Ukrainian forces shot down six missiles and stopped most of the drones before they reached Kyiv. 🇺🇦🇷🇺 DEATH FROM ABOVE: RUSSIA STRIKES UKRAINE AGAIN For the second night in a row, skies over Ukraine lit up—not with fireworks, but with drones and missiles. Kyiv woke up to flames and broken glass after a Russian drone slammed into a five-story apartment building, injuring… — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 25, 2025 Four people were reported dead in the western Khmelnytskyi region, four in the Kyiv region -- which came under attack for the second night running -- and one in Mykolaiv in the south. Another night of Russian terror across Ukraine. Missiles and drones struck Kyiv, the Kyiv region, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskyi, Chernihiv, and more. Civilians killed. Homes destroyed. Families pulled from the rubble. This is not war. It's terrorism. And it must end. Russia… — Anna K 🇺🇦 (@AnnaKozyarska) May 25, 2025 Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city's military administration, said that some of the drones over Kyiv and the surrounding area have already been dealt with. But the new ones are still entering the capital, Kyiv. Overnight attacks were also reported in the Kherson region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was a "difficult night for all of Ukraine" and called for more sanctions on Moscow to achieve a ceasefire. But he also said he expected officials to press on with a prisoner swap agreed during talks last week in Istanbul. The latest offensive comes as the two sides pursue their biggest prisoner swap since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. On Saturday, 307 Russian prisoners of war were exchanged for the same number of Ukrainian soldiers, according to announcements in Kyiv and Moscow. Both sides received 390 people in the first stage on Friday and are expected to exchange 1,000 each in total. Russia has signalled it will send Ukraine its terms for a peace settlement after the exchange, without saying what those terms would be. Meanwhile, Russia has also accused Ukraine of targeting it with 788 drones and missiles since Tuesday. In Moscow, restrictions were imposed on at least four airports, including the main hub Sheremetyevo, the Russian civilian aviation authority said. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 12 drones flying towards the Russian capital had been intercepted.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Our Best Look At Ukraine's Reactivated S-200 Long-Range Surface-To-Air Missiles In Action
Ukraine has, apparently for the first time, released a video showing its use of the Soviet-era S-200 (SA-5 Gammon) long-range surface-to-air missile, a weapon that was reinstated to service only after the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. Since then, the S-200 has not been seen in official imagery but has been credited by Kviv with the high-profile destruction of an A-50 radar plane and a Tu-22M3 bomber. Ukraine's GUR just revealed the first footage of its S-200 Gammon SAM unit, restoring and using the massive Cold War-era missiles to hit Russian targets. Ukrainian S-200s have reportedly been used to down multiple high-value Russian aircraft, and hit Russian ground targets. — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) May 13, 2025 Source- footage: — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) May 13, 2025 The footage in question was published by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense's Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR). Filmed at an undisclosed location, the video shows the missiles being raised into position before blasting off from their fixed launchers somewhere on the Black Sea coast. It's not clear when the footage dates from, but the foliage suggests it was taken at some point in the fall, winter, or early spring. Very much a product of the Cold War, the S-200 was first introduced to service by the Soviet Union in the late 1960s. At that time, its main mission was to bring down high-flying U.S. bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Typically, each S-200 system was deployed in static batteries that typically comprised six single-rail launchers, supported by a long-range surveillance radar, a target search and acquisition radar, a missile guidance radar, and multiple other support elements. In the GUR video, only the missiles and their launchers are visible. As for those missiles, they are from the 5V28 series and each measures around 35 feet in length, with a diameter of almost 34 inches. The missiles are first powered off their launcher using a cluster of four jettisonable solid-propellant boosters around the body, before a single-stage liquid-fuel motor kicks in. These missiles were refined during their initial service, with later models able to engage targets at a maximum range of around 186 miles. In Soviet service, the 5V28 could be armed with a command-detonated nuclear warhead, although those that remained in Ukrainian stocks were all fitted with a conventional 480-pound warhead, armed with a proximity fuze. Prior to the current conflict with Russia, the S-200 was best known in Ukrainian service for the infamous incident in October 2001, when an errant missile from one of the batteries shot down a Russian airliner over the Black Sea, during a live-fire exercise. By this point, the system was already showing its age, and by 2010, it was reported that Ukraine only had four S-200 batteries still active, with another 12 sites inactive. Further reports suggest the S-200 was removed from service entirely in 2013. Nonetheless, it appears that the demands of Russia's full-scale invasion led to at least some of these sites being reactivated or possibly reinstated at different locations. It's likely that much of the required infrastructure was still in place, or could be quickly returned to operational status, with the launchers fed by stocks of the missile that had been held in reserve. Somewhat surprisingly, the first evidence of Ukraine using the S-200s after February 2022 came from Russian accounts of the missiles being deployed in a surface-to-surface role. Russian reports from the summer of 2023 suggested the missiles were being used to attack land targets in Russian rear areas within Ukraine and in Russia itself. One video from this period appears to show a missile that looks very similar to one fired by an S-200 system diving almost vertically onto a target, supposedly in the Bryansk region of western Russia, which borders Ukraine. Another video, from local surveillance cameras, in the same period, shows what looks to be a 5V28 series missile from an S-200 diving vertically onto a target — reportedly a sawmill — in the settlement of Bytosh, also in the Bryansk region. A video of what appears to be a missile of the Soviet-made S-200 air defense system impacting a sawmill in the settlement of Bytosh in Bryansk Oblast of Russia earlier on the Ukrainians started to covert these missiles for the use against ground targets. — Status-6 (Military & Conflict News) (BlueSky too) (@Archer83Able) July 9, 2023 Debate unfolding regarding the type of the missile that was used on #Russian territory. Other possibilities include S-200 anti-aircraft missile, redesigned for strikes against ground targets, on a sawmill in the Bryansk #StormShadow has a very different shape — Arthur Morgan (@ArthurM40330824) July 9, 2023 There were also Russian reports in 2023 of the Ukrainian S-200 being used to attack Morozovsk Air Base in the Rostov region. Some accounts suggest the S-200 was also tasked with attacks on the vital Kerch Bridge, which connects Russia to Russian-occupied Crimea. Also in the summer of 2023, Ukrainian media reported an attempted strike on the bridge using the system, while Russian sources claimed that their air defense operators shot down at least one missile just north of the Taman Peninsula, which borders the Azov Sea to the north, the Kerch Strait to the west, and the Black Sea to the south. Wreckage of the intercepted missile is said to have come down in the Azov Sea. Some sources pointed out that today's attack on the Kerch bridge ,Ukraine used modernized missile from the S-200 ADS complex, which was redesigned for strikes along a ballistic trajectory. This range is about 400 km. Some are suggesting this was ATACMS. The range for a Storm… — Koba (@Roberto05246129) July 9, 2023 Despite claims from the Russian Ministry of Defense that a total of three missiles from the S-200 were successfully intercepted, the incident reportedly led to the temporary closure of the Kerch Bridge by Russian authorities. Claims of the S-200 being used to strike such pinpoint targets should be treated with caution, since it would require extreme accuracy, unless the missile was retrofitted with a GPS guidance system, for example. Still, as we noted at the time, the S-200 gives Ukraine a useful, if extemporized, quasi-short-range ballistic missile-like capability. There is also the possibility that the missiles were more extensively modified for the land-attack role, which could provide them with improved accuracy, although there's no evidence of this so far. Either way, there is no doubt that Ukraine desperately needed a ballistic missile at this time — and still does. In its original form, the 5V28 series missile uses an inertial guidance system with updates provided by radio link before switching to semi-active radar homing for the terminal phase. For ground targets, the missile would have to be modified to hit within a certain circular error probable (CEP), or otherwise use GPS to hit a target more precisely. So regarding S-200's apparent land attack capability. S-200 employs semi-active radar guidance so there is at least an onboard guidance computer that an IMU could theoretically be integrated with. — John Ridge (@John_A_Ridge) July 10, 2023 While it's never been clear how many S-200 systems are available to Ukraine, it has reportedly also been used in its original air defense role, with some impressive results, according to Ukrainian authorities. In April of 2024, Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the GUR, exclusively disclosed to TWZ that an S-200 had been used to bring down a Russian Tu-22M3 Backfire-C bomber that crashed in the Stavropol territory of southern Russia. The U.K. Ministry of Defense subsequently said it was 'almost certain' that an S-200 was used to bring down the Tu-22M3. One down, the rest to first downed Russian strategic bomber Tu-22m3.@KpsZSU@DI_Ukraine — Ukraine Territorial Defense Forces (@TDF_UA) April 19, 2024 One of the Russian Tu-22 strategic bombers that took part in today's attack on Ukrainian cities won't be flying again. Ukraine says it shot down the plane, Russians say it was a malfunction. One of the four crew members is dead. — Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) April 19, 2024 Budanov told TWZ that the Tu-22M3 was engaged at a distance of 308 kilometers — or around 191 miles — from the S-200 battery. I want to believe. — Chung-Tzu (@ChungTzuW) April 19, 2024 At the same time as the Tu-22M3 claim, the GUR said that Ukraine had used the same means to shoot down a Russian A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning and control aircraft earlier in the same year. Ukrainian officials had previously claimed the destruction of two A-50s while airborne, but hadn't previously specified what weapons were used to do this. On other occasions, Ukraine has used the Patriot air defense system to down fixed-wing tactical aircraft and helicopters at long range, including when they are flying within Russian airspace. Using the Patriot, Ukraine has reportedly successfully targeted aircraft at a range of around 100 miles, very much at the limits of its engagement envelope. Despite its age, the S-200 can, in theory, engage targets at much greater ranges, although the claimed 191-mile shootdown of the Tu-22M3 would put it just outside the system's known performance parameters. However, a Ukrainian defense official confirmed to TWZ that Ukraine had received 'help from partners' to produce an updated guidance system for the S-200. 'The missile itself has a good maneuvering system, so if provided with proper guidance is quite a modern weapon,' the official added. This may help explain not only how the target acquisition and missile guidance were achieved, but also how it was able to bring down a target at such a great range. Since then, other air defense solutions involving Western sensors or effectors have become more prevalent in Ukrainian service. With that in mind, combining the S-200 into more advanced sensors for initial targeting, for example could be an option. With Ukraine's insatiable demand for air defense systems, it makes sense to reactivate some of its S-200 systems to bolster its legacy surface-to-air missile systems, as well as those provided by Western allies. Clearly, the S-200 is several generations behind modern ground-based air defense systems, but its very long reach ensures that it has utility in particular scenarios, a fact that its apparent combat successes would seem to attest to. Contact the author: thomas@
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Putin's key demand is designed to inflict maximum damage on Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelensky had just touched down in Kyiv after being told by Donald Trump that Ukraine 'doesn't have any cards' when the explosion happened. In the city of Ufa, 700 miles east of Moscow and more than 1,000 miles away from Kyiv, Mr Zelensky's drone unit struck further into Russian territory than ever before. The Ufimsky oil refinery – one of Russia's largest – burst into flames that burned so bright that they could be seen above the city's skyline for hours. Locals thought there had been an earthquake. Russia has been hit by dozens of similar attacks on its oil refineries and power plants. They are the reason why Vladimir Putin's first ceasefire demand is to make them stop. In recent months, Russian troops have gained momentum on the ground to such an extent that Putin said they were advancing along 'practically the entire front line'. But the rate at which Ukraine is attacking Russia on its home turf has also accelerated rapidly since the start of 2025. Credit: X/ @Osinttechnical/ Reuters The attacks are a way for Ukraine to slow down the Russian army's push by targeting the fuel depots which feed jets, tanks and planes. But they also reflect another aim of Ukraine: the desire to 'bring the war home' to Putin and the Russian people – who hear little of the battlefield difficulties hundreds or even thousands of miles away. That may explain, in part, why after a call with the US president on Tuesday, Putin was willing to agree to a partial ceasefire with Ukraine, covering strikes on energy infrastructure, while continuing to push along the front line. The Telegraph has collected data on every reported refinery attack since the start of the full-scale invasion – checked by experts – showing that 19 attacks have happened so far this year already, compared with 25 during the entirety of 2024. On Jan 11, a Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at the Taneco refinery in the city of Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan. It was the second time in a year that the facility, located some 800 miles away from Ukraine, had been hit by Kyiv's forces. Livia Gallarati, a senior oil markets analyst at Energy Aspects, said there had been a tangible impact on the volume of crude oil being processed by Russian refineries as a result. 'Some of the sites that we know have been attacked and we've been able to corroborate that they are very big, important refineries,' she told The Telegraph. 'And we have seen a meaningful decline in Russian refinery runs – before the attacks, they were refining around 5.6, 5.5 million barrels per day. Now we're down to around 5.1 million barrels per day. So there's definitely been an impact on runs.' Questions remain as to whether the proposed halt in energy attacks will happen. Both Ukraine and Russia claimed on Wednesday morning that their facilities had been targeted, even after the phone call between Mr Trump and Putin. Ukraine had certainly been planning for more. Mr Zelensky revealed on Monday that his forces had successfully tested a long-range drone capable of travelling 1,800 miles. Kyiv had set a target to produce one million drones in 2024. Mr Zelensky said they ended up making more than 2.2 million. This year, he has set a target of 4.5 million – all made inside Ukraine. Credit: X/@front_ukrainian And while the drones may be more capable and sophisticated, Kyiv has also shown a creative streak with its attacks against Russia. In the dark of night in late January, the 14th regiment of the Ukrainian army launched a major attack on Russia's Novozybkov oil pumping station, near the border with weapon of choice was an E-300 SkyRanger light aircraft modified into a drone equipped with a 100kg payload, precision bombing capabilities and, an onboard remote control system. Pictures of the attack showed a FAB-250 high-explosive bomb mounted on a similar light aircraft, alongside a 120mm mortar shell, showing the scale of the weapons. Militarnyi, a Ukrainian military analyst group, said the aircraft was equipped with one large bomb and two smaller munitions 'visually resembling artillery shells'. The remotely controlled light aircraft was designed to return to Ukraine after delivering its payload. It is unclear whether it managed to do so, but the impact of the attack did not go unnoticed. 'Local residents reported loud explosions in the sky and the destruction of several aerial targets,' reported Shot, a Russian Telegram channel. As well as impacting crude oil production at important refineries, such attacks bring attention to the war to Russians who are perhaps being fed disinformation by the government but cannot ignore large fires burning in their local area, according to Emily Ferris, a senior analyst at Rusi.'These attacks demonstrate Ukraine's geographical reach across Russia and psychologically, it brings the war home,' she told The Telegraph. So far, Moscow has struggled to defend its oil facilities because most of its resources are on the front line, according to analysts at Defence Express. The result is that flows to Europe have been affected. Just last week, Hungary saw its oil supplies from Russia temporarily suspended after the Ukrainian military said it targeted the Druzhba pipeline in western Russia's Oryol region. The Novozybkov oil pumping station, which has been repeatedly targeted, is connected to the Druzhba pipeline. It is highly valuable to Russia as it provides a critical route for exporting large volumes of crude oil across Europe, including to Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany. 'It's not that Ukraine can't [have a major impact], it's just that Russia is part of the global hydrocarbon economy. It is still plugged in in a lot of ways and European countries are still receiving flows from Russia,' Ms Ferris told The Telegraph. 'If you massively disrupt that, then it has implications for oil prices across the world. And the Ukrainians are very cautious of not doing that. They have a threshold for what they can really do without having global implications.' The attacks are also intended to have an effect on the Russian military. The Taneco refinery, attacked by Ukraine multiple times, can refine 16 million tons of oil every year and plays a key role in supplying fuel to the Russian army. Ukraine also forced the suspension of operations at an oil refinery in Ryazan, 300 miles from the Ukrainian border, which produces fuel for jets, tanks, aircraft and ships. The increasing number of attacks on Russian soil came at a time when Mr Trump pledged to start peace negotiations, with Kyiv wanting to show it still held some leverage. But there's no doubt a 30-day moratorium on striking each other's energy infrastructure will also come as a relief in Kyiv. Russia's attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure mean Kyiv's capacity is now at around a third of what it was at the beginning of 2022. Millions of people face disruption to power, heating, and water supply due to these attacks, which intensify during the winter. On Tuesday night, hours after Putin concluded his call with Mr Trump, Russian forces conducted an air strike on energy infrastructure in Sloviansk, a city of 100,000 people in the Donetsk region, leaving part of the city without electricity. Ukraine reportedly responded with a drone attack at Russia's Krasnodar Krai oil station, damaging a pipeline connecting storage tanks and sparking a large blaze, according to regional authorities. With little hope of a reversal in fortunes on the ground, nullifying Ukraine's ability to strike Putin where it hurts the most will make the fight even harder. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rare Look At S-300V1 Surface-To-Air Missile Systems In Action In Ukraine
The Ukrainian Air Force has shared some rare views of S-300V1 surface-to-air missile systems firing their 26-foot-long 9M83 interceptors. Early in the conflict, the Soviet-era S-300V1 was one of the highest-end air defense systems available to Ukraine's armed forces, and one of the few offering critical anti-ballistic missile capability, but it's unclear how many of them are still in service. Two different clips of S-300V1s firing, as well as other footage of the system in use, were included in a video montage that Ukraine's Air Force recently released. In the Ukrainian armed forces, the Air Force is the service primarily in charge of higher-end ground-based air and missile defense. And another S-300V engagement, released as part of the same what I have seen, these are the third and fourth Ukrainian S-300V engagement videos released since the start of the war. — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) February 9, 2025 Should note: first tweet includes a small error on my end, it's a 9A85 TEL firing a 9M83 interceptor, not a 9M82. — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) February 9, 2025 Despite the shared nomenclature, the S-300V series is completely different from the S-300P series variants developed by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Versions of the S-300V include self-contained tracked transport-erector-launcher and radar (TELAR) vehicles. There are also TELs without the radar, but that also feature a crane and can be used to reload other launchers. Offboard radars can also be used with the system. Two different interceptors exist for the S-300V series, the 9M82 and 9M83, referred to by NATO as the SA-12B Giant and SA-12A Gladiator, respectively. The 9M83 has a maximum engagement range under optimal conditions of about 47 miles. The larger 9M82, which is nearly 33 feet long and that Ukraine is now known to possess, has a reach of up to 60 miles. S-300V TELARs and TELs can, depending on subvariant, be loaded with up to two 9M82s or four 9M83s. Both interceptors have the ability to engage ballistic missiles in the terminal phase of their flight under limited circumstances. 9M82s and 9M83s are so-called cold-launched missiles that are forcefully ejected vertically from their tubes first before their main rocket motor kicks in, making launches particularly dramatic, as can be seen in the recently released clips. As noted earlier the S-300V1 was an important air defense capability for Ukraine at the time of Russia's all-invasion in 2022. The tracked TELARs also gave the system valuable mobility that could be used to set up these powerful systems near the front lines and relatively. quickly relocate as required. However, it is not clear how many S-300V1s many may still be available. The Soviet-era systems were reportedly pulled out of storage and refurbished following Russia's illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. As TWZ has highlighted in the past, the global S-300V operator base has always been small and the only source for new production missiles has been the original manufacturer in Russia. As such, even if Ukraine still has a significant number of V1s that are still functional, stocks of interceptors for them can only have been dwindling in the past three years. In fact, the video the Ukrainian Air Force recently released showing the S-300V1s in action is centered on an interview with an air defense officer, identified only as Dennis, who was originally trained on the system, but has since transitioned to the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS). Developed by defense contractors in the United States and Norway, NASAMS can fire AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, AIM-9X Sidewinders, and IRIS-T missiles. NASAMS has been a major boon for Ukraine, and in no small part because of the many sources of missiles for it to fire, but it is not intended for use against incoming ballistic missiles. Video of the work of the NASAMS air defense system to protect the Ukrainian sky — Ukrainian Air Force (@KpsZSU) April 21, 2023 Demand for additional ballistic missile defense capacity was an important driver behind the delivery of U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air missile systems to the Ukrainian military, as well as a variety of different interceptors to go with them, as you can read more about here. Patriots can be and have been used by Ukrainian forces against non-ballistic targets, as well. Just in January, Israel reportedly began sending additional stocks of PAC-2 interceptors to Ukraine following its retirement of its Patriot systems last year. Russia's ballistic missile arsenal, now bolstered by imports from North Korea, remains a serious threat to Ukraine and could grow further if much-reported deliveries of additional examples from Iran materialize. Though aging and increasingly difficult to support, any S-300V1s that remain operational in Ukraine would offer a still valuable mix of capabilities. Contact the author: joe@
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukrainian Navy intercepts Russian Kh-59 missile with US' ship-mounted VAMPIRE SAM
The Ukrainian Navy's official Telegram channel reported that a Sukhoi Su-57 multirole fighter launched a Kh-59 cruise missile at the port, which was intercepted by a surface-to-air missile fired from a patrol boat. The Ukrainian Navy used a ship-mounted VAMPIRE SAM to intercept and destroy the Kh-59 cruise missile launched at a commercial seaport on the Black Sea. On January 24, Russia launched a major missile and drone attack on multiple Ukrainian regions, including Kyiv, using over 60 aerial weapons. One target was the Pivdennyi port, a key hub for exporting grain and essential goods, making it a frequent target of Russian attacks, the Kyiv Post reported. Over the past year, the Kh-59 missile has become a frequent choice for Russian forces, with its deployment on the Su-57 Felon regularly highlighted by various observers. The open-source military intelligence commentator Osinttechnical determined that the missile system used was the L3 Harris 'Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment' (VAMPIRE) system, which deployed the laser-guided 70mm advanced precision kill weapons system (APKWS) missile. The VAMPIRE system is a modular, portable kit that can be mounted on any vehicle with a cargo bed, whether military or civilian. Installation is user-friendly, allowing a two-person team to complete it in about two hours using standard tools. Originally designed as ground-based, vehicle-mounted equipment, the VAMPIRE system sparked discussions in early 2024 about its potential integration with naval platforms and unmanned surface vessels (USVs), like the Magura V5 or Sea Baby drones. In practice, VAMPIRE has been deployed on various platforms, ranging from pickup trucks like the Toyota Tacoma to more heavily armored vehicles such as the up-armored HMMWV, demonstrating its versatile "agnostic" design. This incident indicates that Ukraine has adapted at least one patrol boat, likely a "Small Armored Artillery Boat" (SAB), into a mobile anti-missile platform. This adaptation may help counter the threat posed by missiles like the Kh-59, which are designed to evade detection. During nighttime or low-visibility conditions over water, the Kh-59 flies at a very low altitude of about 7 meters (23 feet) to avoid radar detection. It uses a combination of inertial navigation and a TV or electro-optical seeker for terminal guidance to its target. Additionally, the operation's success also highlights the coordinated efforts between naval and possibly air defense units, ensuring a comprehensive response to aerial threats. Furthermore, Ukraine's APKWS missile, a modified air-to-surface missile (ASM), employs the WESCAM MX-10 combined thermal imaging sensor and laser designator to track the cruise missile. The SAM's proximity fuse then detonates near the target, disabling or destroying the incoming Kh-59 missile. This advanced targeting system enhances the missile's effectiveness, particularly in challenging conditions like low visibility or nighttime operations, and can be of great help for Ukraine's defense efforts against missile threats.
