MOSCOW. Nov 23 (Interfax) - The Russian Navy has practiced the deployment of Bal and Bastion anti-ship missile systems on the Black Sea coast.
"Joint exercises with the crew of a small missile-carrying craft will be the next phase of the missile units' practice," Russia's Black Sea Fleet said in a statement on Monday.
The exercise was planned in advance, the Black Sea Fleet said.
The Bal system was commissioned for service in 2008. It is used as a standard weapon of coastguard forces and is designed to protect territorial waters, naval bases, and coastal infrastructure and to oppose landing operations. The system is armed with Kh-35 (3M24) anti-ship missiles, with the Kh-35E version having a range of 120 kilometers and Kh-35U 260 kilometers.
The Bastion anti-ship missile system is armed with the Oniks supersonic self-aiming anti-ship missile.
The system is designed to protect coasts running for over 600 kilometers and to intercept surface ships of various classes and types acting as part of landing units, convoys, or carrier strike groups, as well as individual ships and ground radiocontrast targets, amid intensive electronic countermeasures and counter-fire.
All Russian naval fleets, including naval units deployed in the Kuril Islands area, are armed with Bastion systems. The Russian Armed Forces were to receive four such systems annually in the period up to 2021