S-400 teams repel enemy missile strike in drills as NATO’s maneuvers progress in Black Sea

The air defense units of Russia’s Southern Military District stationed in the Krasnodar Region repelled a notional enemy’s massive missile strike during drills in Russia’s south, the press office of the Russian Black Sea Fleet reported on Tuesday.

The exercise was held amid NATO’s Sea Breeze multinational naval maneuvers running in the Black Sea on June 28 - July 10.

"Under the scenario of the drills, the teams of S-400 ‘Triumf’ surface-to-air missile systems and Pantsyr-S anti-aircraft missile/gun launchers performed a march to the positioning areas, where they practiced an algorithm of measures to detect and track the notional enemy’s aerial targets, and also conducted electronic missile launches to eliminate them," the press office said in a statement.

In turn, the Pantsyr-S crews practiced shielding S-400 missile systems from potential enemy strikes, the statement says.

"After notionally employing missile weapons each time, the personnel accomplished the tasks of changing the launch positions, equipping and camouflaging them. The aim of the exercise to shield the Fleet’s vital facilities from the hypothetical enemy’s air attack weapons was achieved in full," the press office said.

The drills involved about 100 personnel, and over 30 pieces of military and special hardware, the statement says.

The Sea Breeze 2021 drills running in the Black Sea involve Ukraine, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Latvia and other countries. About 4,000 personnel, 40 warships, 30 aircraft and over 100 motor and armored vehicles are expected to participate in the Sea Breeze 2021 maneuvers.