- Service ensign · official · carried by Navy
- State affiliation · Russia
- Vigil category device · not official insignia
Identity provenance
Service ensign: St Andrew's ensign — naval ensign of the Russian Federation — carried by Navy, not issued to this record. Drawn by Vigil to the geometry the 1992 readoption specifies — white field, blue saltire, band width one tenth of the fly, 2:3. Drawn rather than supplied because this geometry is fully specified; no image file is involved in this record.
State affiliation: Russia.
The smaller square mark is a Vigil category device, drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role — not an official insignia.
In brief
Shore-based anti-ship missile forces — the Bastion and Bal systems held by each fleet's coastal troops — which in this war have been fired from Crimea at land targets around Odesa as often as at ships.
- Scope
- Structure, role, lineage and links. No subordinate records published.
- Subordination
- Subordination confirmed
- Sources
- 4 on the record
- Record state
- Partial
- Broad area of activity
- Coastal missile brigades attached to each fleet; in this war the Black Sea Fleet's, operating from occupied Crimea against the north-western Black Sea and the Odesa coast. No position is authored.
- Notable history
- A Soviet inheritance kept and modernised: the coastal troops received the Bastion supersonic anti-ship system from 2010, with the Black Sea Fleet's brigade among the first equipped, and the Bal system alongside it. Their doctrinal task is to close a sea area to hostile shipping; their actual war has been different. Russia itself announced in 2022 that Bastion missiles were being used against ground targets, and the Odesa region has been struck repeatedly by anti-ship missiles flown from Crimea — a use that reflects both the absence of a Ukrainian surface fleet to shoot at and the shortage of purpose-built land-attack missiles. Ukraine has in turn struck Bastion launchers and command posts in Crimea, as its own statements record.
- Strengths
- A survivable, road-mobile, supersonic anti-ship capability that has helped keep Ukraine's navy from operating surface combatants in the north-western Black Sea at all, and a launcher set that can be turned on land targets when needed.
- Limitations
- Anti-ship missiles used against cities are expensive, inaccurate for the purpose and politically costly; the launchers are in Crimea within Ukrainian strike range; and the branch's structure below fleet level is not published and not authored.
Assessed as of — 2026-07 Last reviewed — 2026-09-28
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