- Recently, Ukraine claimed that it has damaged the Russian Black Sea Fleet Flagship ‘Moskva’ by Neptune Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles.
- The Neptune is a coastal anti-ship cruise missile that is capable of the destruction of naval vessels in a range of 300 km.
- The Missile system was inducted into the Ukrainian Defence Forces in March 2021 after being in development for six years.
- The cruise missile was developed in haste by the military as the Russian threat to the coastal areas of Ukraine was growing rapidly since the occupation of Crimea in 2014.
- The design of this missile is based on a Russian Kh-35 cruise missile which goes by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) name of AS-20 Kayak.
- The cruise missile attack was carried out using TB-2 drones as decoys along with other measures toward saturation of the cruiser’s Air Defence systems.
- Moskva is a guided missile cruiser of the Russian Navy named after the city of Moscow.
- A cruiser is a large surface warship built for high speed and great cruising radius, capable of not only defending its own fleet and coastlines but also threatening those of the enemy.
- The Moskva was originally commissioned as the Slava in 1983.
- It was recommissioned in 2000 as the Moskva with refurbished weapon systems and electronics.
- It has a displacement of 12,490 tons.
- It is the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy and carries a crew of around 500 personnel.
SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT