Russian bomber pilots fear they will be shot down in the Black Sea, so they quickly point their missiles at decoys and leave the area. This is stated in a new report of the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom, a summary of which was published on the social network X.
It is recalled that the merchant ship Aya was hit by a missile in the Black Sea on September 11, when it was sailing south from Odessa to Egypt, loaded with 26,000 tons of grain. The missile was almost certainly the anti-ship AS-4 KITCHEN (X-22) fired by a Russian Tu-22M3 bomber operating in the area at the time. It is likely that the lack of detonation allowed catastrophic damage to be avoided.
"It is unlikely that Aya was the intended target for this strike and was likely hit due to poor targeting procedures by Russian pilots using outdated munitions. "Russia regularly attacks targets along Ukraine's Black Sea coast, including Snake Island, in an attempt to disrupt export activities and damage any military assets in the area," the London-based military said in a report.
Latest Defense Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 03 October 2024.
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According to British intelligence, since the loss of the Tu-22M3 in April this year, Russia has become more cautious in its strike operations in the Black Sea. It is realistic that this incident happened because the pilots hastily misidentified the Aya ship as their target, wanting to leave the area immediately after launch for fear of being attacked by a Ukrainian surface-to-air missile.
"The X-22 missile has consistently failed to accomplish its intended mission in the conflict in Ukraine. "The launch of a supersonic cruise missile on the wrong course to a possibly wrong target in international waters demonstrates extremely poor and irresponsible aviation practice," the defense ministry in London said.