New Ukrainian missile strikes Russian S-400 system in Crimea 

This is reported by Defense Express. 

The video published by the Main Intelligence Directorate shows the destruction of two launchers at once from a secret drone, which resulted in the detonation of anti-aircraft missiles. A second explosion, with a high degree of probability, has led to the destruction of other S-400 systems.

"The missile was new. The missile was absolutely modern. Its use proved that our defense industry, our program, which was launched in 2020, is up to the task. By the way, I remind those who told us about preparations for war. So, it was in 2020 that the National Security and Defense Council made a decision on the military processes, not all of which were open, and therefore society could not know about certain things. So, yes, this is a new product that has proven to be flawless," said Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine's Security and Defense Council. 

Prior to that, there was unofficial information that the attack was carried out by a Neptune anti-ship missile, which was adapted to strike ground targets. The latter is quite possible because plans for such a development were already in place at the time of its creation. And it is quite possible to realize this on existing technologies, as Harpoon in the Block II version has such capabilities.

Simultaneously, the Russians claim that it could have been a Brimstone 2 planted on a speedboat. The next day's operation by the Main Intelligence Directorate, which included a landing in the same area, could have inspired the occupiers to believe this way. The National Security and Defense Council Secretary, on the other hand, dismisses the Brimstone 2 version.

It is also possible to pay attention to the strike itself, which may hint at certain capabilities of the missile itself. More specifically, its guidance system. Given that the strike was accompanied by a drone, it can be assumed that it played the role of a targeting device.

At the same time, the optical sighting station's mark is positioned on the central machine, most likely the S-400 radar. This signifies that the UAV did not use a laser beam to illuminate the target. Also, because the launcher was damaged rather than the radar, a passive homing radar head can be ruled out.

"Thermal imaging and radar remain the only targeting systems. Given that we are talking about Ukrainian development, the latter option is the most likely. Moreover, a launcher of the S-300 or S-400 type has a rather characteristic radar signature," Defense Express writes. 

At the same time, it should not be forgotten that some Ukrainian missile developments have demonstrated quite high accuracy even when using only satellite and inertial navigation systems. For example, Vilkha. 

The video also shows a rather large primary explosion, the flames of which are consumed by two S-400 launchers at once. That is, we are talking about a fairly large fragmentation-type warhead.

"This means that we are talking about a "large" missile, which directly indicates the range of the flight. In these circumstances, we should be talking about 130 km from the nearest point of the front, to which we still need to add 10-20 km, or 180 km if we take the Odesa region as the launch site," the company writes. 

This will result in a fairly long-range weapon that doubles the capabilities of the GMLRS in HIMARS, while ensuring similar accuracy. And this means new and quite interesting opportunities for the Armed Forces to destroy the enemy in its even distant rear. And not only in the occupied territory.