Thread by @TrentTelenko

This Ukrainian strike in Crimea should be no surprise.

The Neptune anti-ship cruise missile has a back up GPS/Inertial guidance capability for land attack capability like the US Harpoon.

1/

https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1556995077959983107

Jason Lancaster's Cimsec article give a nice map of Neptune operating out of Odessa.

170 nm is ~280 km.

2/

https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1514353226845495308

@Orion__int gave a much more comprehensive Neptune footprint map back in January 2022, before the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine.

3/

https://twitter.com/Orion__int/status/1486024618700075009

These are the Luchs laser ring gyro inertial measurement units that were for Neptune.

So it would have the accuracy & the range for the strike.
4/

https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1555316369587060736

As for how it go through Russian air defenses.

Neptune has a radar altimeter which allows it to fly at an altitude of five meters above average mean sea level.

And this was a Russian Naval air field not an air force facility.
5/

https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1555316326872268803

The VKS controls the SAM's defending Crimea.

Sevastopol harbor, the Kerch Bridge, then VKS ar fields would be higher on the priority list than a Russian Naval air field.

6/

And Ukraine has these folks on their side:

7/

https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1507837888511234053

USAF officers and airmen at the Stand-off Munitions Activity Center (SMAC) at Barksdale AFB would have spent days putting together an Neptun attack profile to make this strike work.

8/

I did a long thread talking about SMAC and their role in penetrating penetrating "A2AD bubbles" back in March 2022.

9/End

https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1507837884266856449