Thursday March 20th, Ukraine struck one of Russia’s most important airbases, housing Russia strategic bombers, with drones. The attack triggered a huge explosion that was caught on geolocated video.
Engels 2 Airbase
Engles-2 is located 450 miles from the Ukrainian frontline. While Russia or Ukraine both didn’t report directly what was used to carry out the attack, Russian forces in the area did report shooting down 54 drones during the time the base came under attack.
Russia’s Engels-2 airbase is one of its most important airbases as it is the one airbase operating Russia’s Tupolev TU-160’s (NATO reporting name Blackjack). The TU-160 is a supersonic, variable swept-wing, nuclear capable long-range, strategic bomber that has been during the Russia/Ukraine war to launch long range cruise missile into Ukraine.
The TU-160. While often compared to the Rockwell B-1 ”Lancer” the TU-160 is significantly larger and faster while the B-1 has a larger payload. The TU-160 was designed as a long range cruise missile platform, the Bone on the other hand excels at penetrating highly contested airspace’s with its speed and ability to use terrain masking by flying very low.
While the bombers would be a nice target it appears the main focus of the attack was on something even more critical to the war. Looking at the satellite images, released in the days since the attack, show that all of the TU-160’s or TU-95’s were undamaged after the attack. The drones mostly targeted an area of the airbase being used to store munitions. The base, along with regular munitions, is used for the maintaining and storage of the Russian KH-101 Cruise missile although it’s not verified if any of them were damaged or destroyed.
Overview of the whole airfield. Affected area is off by itself in the top right under the Maxar logo. The before shot of an ammunition storage area of the airbase. These ammo storage areas, generally are fairly easy to spot as it will usually be an underground building or a regular building with raised dirt berms surrounding it. The dirt is there tj absorb shock and hopefully protect neighboring buildings in case of an explosion. The after shot. A number of buildings here are completely destroyed, either from direct targeting or a result of the blast and resulting fire that blazed for two days.
The fire in the aftermath of the attack led to a state of emergency being declared in the region as civilians were evacuated. Some having had their houses damaged in the explosion.
Video shows the soon after from the explosion, you can see that some of the houses were damaged from the shockwave of the large blast.
The explosion damaged many homes in the immediate area. Windows busted or blown out, as well as roofs being damaged or having sections completely blown off.
US Forces kill senior operative of Terror Group Hurras al-Din in Syria.
The aftermath of the airstrike that killed Muhammad Salah al-Za’bir in Northwestern Syria.
On January 30th US CENTCOM (Central Command) forces conducted an airstrike in northwestern Syria targeting a senior operative of the US classified Terror group Huertas Al-Din (HaD) an affiliate of Al-Qaeda. The target was Muhammad Salah al-Za’bir a former ISIS member who later went on to become a member of the Syrian At-Qaeda branch. Not much else is known about him besides that CENTCOM describes him as a “Senior member” in the group.
A statement from CENTCOM on the strike:
“The airstrike is part of CENTCOM’s ongoing commitment, along with partners in the region, to disrupt and degrade efforts by terrorists to plan, organize and conduct attacks against civilians and military personnel from the U.S., our allies, and our partners throughout the region and beyond”
It ends with a warning from commander of CENTCOM, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla.
“CENTCOM will continue to hunt and kill or capture terrorists and defend our homeland against groups that plot to attack U.S. and allied personnel,”
M/V Golbon and M/V Jairan, Two Iranian flagged containerships have reportedly been loaded with over 1000 tonnes of sodium perchlorate at a Chinese port over the past several days.
M/V JairanM/V Golbon
Sodium perchlorate is used to make ammonium perchlorate which can be used as a solid propellant in ballistic missiles and is controlled under the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international Anti- Proliferation group.
The US military has been engaged in defensive operations against the Yemeni Houthis for the past 15 months in the waters of the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea as well as the sky’s above Yemen. Several different US carrier strike groups have been deployed into the area to protect the billions of dollars of international commerce that moves through the Red Sea daily heading to and from the Suez Canal. The Houthis have targeted any ship they believe is connected in any way to America or Israel as a way to show support for Palestinian terror group Hamas and their war with Israel in Gaza.
The Head of Naval Surface Forces Vice Admiral Brendan McLane revealed at a Surface Navy Association conference that was attended by journalists from The War Zone( TWZ is great, I always recommend them when they come up) just how many munitions had been expended in the operation. Statements made by the Vice Admiral also give us a more detailed look at how the operation has been going and what US forces as well as their European allies have been dealing with. US CENTCOM which is the United States military command over The Middle East region regularly puts out reports and social media post however they can sometimes be sparse with the details.
The U.S. Navy Surface Fleet has expended 400 individual munitions against the Iranian backed Houthis.
The Vice Admiral also gave an example of the current state of modern surface warfare by talking about a recent engagement that the sailers aboard the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111).
“They were in a fight where they shot down 3 anti-ship ballistic missiles(ASBM), 3 anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) and 7 one-way [unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs],” McLane said. “So that’s how it kind of rolls up.”
USS Spruance (DDG 111) after its return to its homeport, Naval Base San Diego, Cali
I’d like to break down the specific munitions, what they are used for, and maybe most importantly- the cost to the American taxpayers.
USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93) fires an SM-2 missile.
SM-2 missiles (RIM-66)
120 expended. This missile is the workhorse of US navy air defense, being used to take out incoming anti ship missiles as well as other
missiles and incoming enemy jet fighters.. High speed-highly maneuverable and considered one of the best in the world at what it does. The Sm-2 has a reported range of 90 nautical miles and can reach an altitude of 65,000 ft. A cornerstone of the fleets layered air defense systems.
SM-2
Cost vary on specific missile block but these come in at roughly $2 million USD per.
The U.S. is reported to have around 12,000 of these in its stocks.
US Aegis Destroyer intercepts Medium-Range Ballistic Missile with new SM-6 SWUP Missile.
SM-6 missiles (RIM-174)
80 expended
This is a newer addition to the fleet and the navy has a more limited stock of these missile with only 500 being reported to have been delivered according to the Raytheon website.
Coming equipped with the active radar seeker found in the Air-to-air AIM-120C AMRAAM, This missile is capable of a wide range of task being capable of defensive anti air against missile (including ballistic missile in their final terminal phase) as well as manned and unmanned air units. Its high speed also makes it a useful anti surface weapons although it’s high cost makes other weapons better choices. The thought behind this missile was warship today have limited space and a weapon that can effectively do everything is a benefit. The explosive warhead as opposed to a hit-to-kill style missile makes this missile capable of potentially defeating the Chinese DF-21D and DF-25B anti-ship ballistic missiles.
SM-6 missile profile.
Cost average around $3.9 million per.
A combined 20 expended from the
Sea sparrow and the SM-3.
Sea Sparrow launch
Sea Sparrow ESSM
Medium-range, semi-active homing missile that makes flight corrections via radar and midcourse data uplinks. The missile provides reliable ship self-defense capability against agile, high-speed, low-altitude anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs), low velocity air threats (LVATs), such as helicopters, and high-speed, maneuverable surface threats
Sea Sparrow Profile
$787K – $972K depending on configuration
SM-3 launched from the USS McCampbell (DDG 85) intercepts ballistic missile .
SM-3 (RIM-161)
The SM-3 is the main ballistic missile defense of the fleet. It uses its powerful kinetic energy to utilize a hit-to-kill method of attack. It has a lower production rate than everything else on the list which also puts a heavy cost on these missile, especially if you have to fire more than one at a time.
SM-3 missile profile
Anywhere from $10 million to $30 million (this price likely to come down some as missile production is ramped up as announced earlier today.
While the expenditure of these weapons is something to be concerned about it only highlights the logistical issues that the US would have in a near peer, great power conflict when the amount of munitions expended in the Red Sea over the past year would equal only several days of fighting in say the pacific against China. Addressing these procurement and cost issues is paramount if the US is to remain a dominant force on the world’s stage.
Global Conflict Reporting 
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