By Valentin Vasilescu - April 19, 2019
Due to the mountainous terrain along the peninsular junction with Ukraine for a distance of 90 km, Crimea is very difficult to conquer. During the Second World War, Germany and Romania had to use 195,000 soldiers to attack the Crimea. Today, Crimea is still better defended by Russia than in the past. Only the naive may think that NATO would risk losing more than 70,000 troops to conquer Crimea and then give it to Ukraine.
The Territorial Defense of Crimea is provided by the 22nd Army Corps with a strength of 32,000 soldiers. If necessary, the 49th and 58th Russian armies in the Caucasus intervene in support. This support is provided by 5 naval infantry brigades, airborne and special, supported by several regiments of artillery. Their role is to reject the land enemy from the north, from Ukraine, and to throw back into the sea those who landed on the Crisean coast. They are equipped with T-72B3, BMP-2, BTR-82A, 2S19 Msta self-propelled howitzers, Tornado-G and Grad rocket launchers, Khrizantema, Kornet-D and Konkurs-M anti-tank missile systems. The Kerch Strait Bridge is defended by two independent Marine Infantry Battalions, a Border Guard Battalion, an Artillery Regiment and an S-300 VM Anti-Ballistic Missile Division.
The military and civilian targets of Crimea are protected by subunits of electronic warfare systems. At the same time, there are electronic systems in Crimea that detect coordinates of the firing position of the enemy and precisely neutralize it in all weather, day and night. Some of these stations are on the ground (R-381T2, R-934UM, R-330Zh, Borisoglebsk 2, PSNR-8 KREDO-M1, Murmansk-BN / Palantin, RB-341V Leer-3) but network with unmanned aircraft or Orlan-10 and Mi-8 helicopters. Electronic combat systems also work on AWACS systems, airborne search, detection and guiding of firing on board attack aircraft and cruise missiles.
The 22nd Corps also includes a brigade and a coastal missile regiment equipped with Bastion-P systems and Bal systems. The Bastion-P battery uses P-800 Oniks anti-ship missiles with a range of 300 to 600 km and a speed of Mach 2.5. The Bal battery uses Kh-35U anti-ship missiles with a range of 120 to 230 km. Both types of missiles can sink enemy ships with a displacement of up to 5,000 tons.
The 4th Air and Air Defense Army supports the 22nd Army Corps and has deployed in Crimea a 5-division S-400 Regiment and two Mixed Missile + Pantsir and Buk-3 missile regiments. Aviation in Crimea is composed of 120 aircraft. Su-27SM and Su-30 multi-purpose aircraft, Su-24 bombers, Ka-52 helicopters, Mi-35, Mi-8AMTsh, etc.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet is cooperating with the 22nd Corps to reject the enemy far from the borders of Crimea. For this she has at her disposal: the Smetlivy destroyer, armed with ship-to-ship missiles KH-35, the anti-submarine frigates Ladny and Pitlivy, equipped with the Metel missile system, 6 Varshavyanka submarines - (Project 636.3 ), armed with Kalibr and Oniks anti-ship missiles. The most modern ships are the 3 Admiral Grigorovich class frigates equipped with universal vertical launchers for Kalibr, Oniks and Zircon missiles. Three other new Buyan-M (Project 21631) and Karakurt class corvettes are equipped with universal vertical launchers equipped with the same types of missiles.
Valentin Vasilescu
Aviation pilot, former Deputy Commander of the Military Forces at Otopeni Airport, graduated in Military Science at the Academy of Military Studies in Bucharest 1992.