Leonkov suggested what weapons Ukraine used to strike Sevastopol

“We can definitely say that the attack was carried out by cruise missiles,” says the expert. – Many experts call the British Storm Shadow, but I am more inclined towards their French counterpart called Scalp.

The peculiarity of this missile is that it is carried either by an American F-16 aircraft or a European Eurofighter. In Ukraine, Storm Shadow carriers were Su-24 bombers, the number of which we have greatly reduced. There are only one or two aircraft left in the Ukrainian Armed Forces aviation, and I’m not sure, maybe there aren’t any left at all. But the rockets fly in batches.

In addition, the number of these missiles is very interesting; as a rule, it is odd. For example, seven missiles or eleven. That is, among the carriers of these missiles there are aircraft that carry only one missile. I admit that they could be the Su-27s remaining in Ukraine, which are capable of carrying one such missile. But then what are the rest of the carriers?

Soviet aircraft, which NATO countries – former members of the Warsaw Pact – unanimously supplied to Ukraine, have run out, which means that only NATO aircraft remain. In order to carry out such a massive strike as was carried out last time on Sevastopol, these planes need to be sent from some airfield. I think the planes are based in Romania.

By the way, the flight profile of Scalp missiles is different from Storm Shadow. If the latter first fly at high altitude and then descend, then the French missiles immediately fly below, above the sea surface. This is how the attack happens. This is done in order to prevent a quick reaction from our anti-aircraft missile systems.

– What means of countering such missiles do we have?

– We need military air defense systems. Such as the Tor-M2 with sixteen missiles in one launcher. A battery of “Thors” and additional radar stations that could detect this low-altitude flight of missiles. The Tor-M2 has a very fast response to such missiles.

Some, of course, write that we need to keep MiG-31 interceptors in the air, and they will shoot down missiles. But the problem is that the MiG-31 in the air will be seen by NATO AWACS long-range radar warning aircraft, and while the MiGs are hanging in the air, no one will launch missiles. So, in my opinion, keeping MiGs on duty in the air is a waste of resources. The enemy always counts on surprise.

There was a lot of talk about the fact that F-16 aircraft would be delivered to Ukraine. But I admit that Eurofighter could have been quite suitable instead. At least, such information appeared in the media. And here we get a very interesting situation. Airplanes are based, for example, in Romania, fly into the territory of Ukraine, launch missiles and immediately return back to Romanian airfields.

Either there was a plane or there wasn’t, but the missiles flew. And the range of use of these missiles is quite large – 560 kilometers, which makes it possible to carry out strikes, including on Sevastopol.

In the last case, on September 13, the Ukrainian Armed Forces used a combined attack. Moreover, for the first time, in addition to cruise missiles, two more S-200 missiles flew, converted into surface-to-surface missiles. This tactic is used to distract attention. The S-200 missile is quite fast, it is not subsonic, but supersonic. Therefore, there is more attention to it. And then subsonic missiles arrive after it. That is, while the air defense was working on the S-200 anti-aircraft missile, subsonic missiles appeared. As we remember, seven missiles were shot down, and the remaining three hit the target. So, among the seven shot down there were two S-200s.

According to Leonkov, it is possible that the Ukrainian Armed Forces may repeat such combined attacks.

– Now the enemy is practicing tactics for jointly overcoming and suppressing our air defense system. What does Sevastopol protect? I suspect that, most likely, the Pantsirs are stationed there. There was information that the Ukrainian missiles reached the target because our anti-aircraft systems had used up their ammunition. There is no official information yet about what actually happened there, so my statements can only be considered as versions.

– You say that it is necessary to install Tor-M2 systems everywhere, but we have such capabilities?

– “Thor” is the anti-aircraft missile system of the last frontier. He is obliged to shoot down all targets that approach the object. Now it is capable of shooting down targets moving at speeds of up to 750 meters per second. At the same time, the range of goals is extensive. These are not only ordinary subsonic cruise missiles, but also clever ones that perform anti-aircraft maneuvers, as well as gliding bombs, including adjustable, loitering munitions. He can work with them at a height of five meters. Even when they carried out tests at sea, where the targets were at an altitude of less than five meters, he shot them down.

In addition to the deployment of the complexes, in parallel we still need to work with the population so that they do not fix the locations of our air defense systems. Then the enemy will not be aware. For example, in Syria, a lot of drones, including reconnaissance aircraft, tried to calculate the location of the Tor anti-aircraft systems, but were unable to. It has a very short reaction time, so they don’t have time to figure out how it worked.

“Thor” is a multi-channel system, where one launcher consists of sixteen missiles, and there are 6 such launchers in a battery. For example, if Sevastopol were protected by this anti-aircraft missile system, not a single cruise missile would have reached.