Russian firepower unleashed

Russia unleashed the full panoply of combat power in its multi-pronged attack on Ukraine. Fighter aircraft, land-attack cruise missiles, medium-range ballistic missiles and long-range artillery were all deployed to hit Ukrainian military and government targets. It was Moscow’s version of the American shock-and-awe offensive against Iraq in 2003, with all the Russian armed services involved in the multiple strikes that began at 5am local time. Many of the initial attacks came from five Kilo-class Russian navy submarines operating in the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean. The submarines are armed with land-attack 3M14 Kalibr cruise missiles, similar to the US Tomahawks. Fitted with a 1,000lb high explosive warhead, the Kalibr has a range of up to 1,500 miles. In service with the Russian navy since 2015, Kalibr cruise missiles were first fired in anger the same year against Isis targets in Syria, and again in 2017. They were launched from a submarine in 2015 and from a frigate in 2017. One of the submarines that launched cruise missiles at targets in Odessa, the Black Sea port and other military sites is believed to have been the diesel-electric powered Rostov-on-Don, the same one involved in the 2015 attack in Syria. The cruise missiles were fired in concert with massed arrays of Russian artillery that had advanced from the Ukrainian border in Western Russia, and with mobile Iskander short-range ballistic-missiles operating from Belarus. The most deadly artillery in the Russian military is the Koalitsiya-SV self-propelled howitzer. It’s fitted with a 152mm gun which has a rate of fire of more than ten rounds per minute and has a maximum range of about 44 miles. The 9K720 Iskander ballistic missile, known by Nato as the SS-26 Stone, has a range of up to 310 miles and carries a payload of between 480 kilos and 700 kilos. The weapon system can also fire cruise missiles. In addition to T-72 and T-90 tanks, the Russian military are also believed to have deployed a special urban warfare armoured vehicle called the BMPT-72 “Terminator”. It’s a heavily armed tracked vehicle armed with cannon, machineguns, automatic grenade launchers and Ataka guided missiles. In addition to their most advanced fighter aircraft, some of Russia’s bomber fleet, including Tu22M3 Backfires, Tu-95 Bears and Tu-160 Blackjacks may also have played a role in the initial attacks, firing stand-off missiles from beyond the range of Ukrainian air defences. The troops involved in the invasion plan include Russian naval infantry (the equivalent of the US Marine Corps) who are on 11 amphibious landing ships in the Black Sea. They could land a force of up to 4,000 troops, plus armoured vehicles, to seize Odessa.