The Security Service of Ukraine (SZBU) reported that one of the Il-38N anti-submarine aircraft of the Russian Navy was hit by a drone attack at Yeysk airport in southern Russia.
According to a statement published on the official Telegram channel of the SZBU press service, the action took place even before the explosion of the Varshavyanka-class submarine in Novorossiysk.
According to the information, the aircraft was stationed at the airport where the 859th Combat Application and Aircrew Retraining Center of the Russian Navy’s Naval Aviation operates. To destroy the plane, a drone was deployed that was equipped with an aerial warhead and contained about two thousand downward-directed destructive elements.
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“The device exploded directly above the compartment containing the aircraft’s main equipment and radars and also damaged the engine,” the SZBU said. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the operation was planned and carried out by agents of the 13th General Directorate of the Military Countermeasures Department of the Security Service of Ukraine.
The Il–38N is used for maritime reconnaissance tasks, submarine search and tracking, control of sea areas, laying minefields, and conducting torpedo attacks. According to the SZBU, the attacked aircraft played an active role in the action against maritime drones used by Ukraine in the Black Sea.
The type is a modernized version of the original Il-38, distinguished by the integration of the advanced Novella patrol and surveillance system. The first take-off of the modernized aircraft – still equipped with a model of the search and navigation complex – took place in the spring of 2001. Full-scale state tests of the system began in the fall of 2022.
The first test copy was put into service at the end of 2011 with the Northern Fleet, the official handover took place in March 2012. The series production modernization of the Il-38 to the Il-38N standard – also known by the codename “Romance” – began in 2013 and was carried out by the Myasishchev design office in Zhukovsky, near Moscow.
The exact differences between the Novella system and its base export version, the “Sea Serpent”, remain secret. According to information provided by Russian sources, the complex is capable of detecting surface and underwater targets, and even objects under the ice, in a range of up to 320 kilometers, and also has a dedicated electronic reconnaissance unit.
Currently, some of the Il-38 aircraft in service with Russian naval aviation still use the Berkut navigation and targeting system originally developed in the 1960s, making the Il-38N one of the most advanced platforms of its type in the Russian Navy.
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Source and images: Telegram @SBUkr. The content is created with the help of artificial intelligence and verified by the editors.
