Ukrainian strike sinks modern Russian warship in Sevastopol port

The Ukrainians carried out another attack on Russian ships stationed in the port of Sevastopol. This time, however, they used MGM-140 ATACMS blast missiles, which achieved the first-ever hit on a warship. We explain the details of this attack.

According to the portal Army Recognition, based on Russian sources, the Karakurt Tsiklon project 22800 Corvette was hit and sunk in the attack on the night of 19-20 May 2024. This modern Russian ship was launched in the summer of 2020 and commissioned on 12 June 2023. It was one of four completed ships of this type and the only one serving in the Black Sea Fleet.

This was accomplished by MGM-140 ATACMS ballistic missiles, which would be the first such instance concerning warships. While Houthi rebels from Yemen have hit a few vessels in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles, those were civilian units. Here, on the other hand, we have a warship, and this is another feat by the Ukrainians in the campaign to dismantle the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which will go down in history after surface drone attacks or eliminating a submarine with an air-launched cruise missile.

In keeping with the current trend, the project 22800 Karakurt ships feature stealth technology construction and are equipped with advanced target detection systems. The ship's main armament includes two four-chamber vertical launchers for Kalibr-NK cruise missiles or anti-ship P-800 Oniks missiles.

The secondary armament includes a 76 mm AK-176MA naval gun similar to the Leonardo 76 mm Super Rapido and a maritime variant of the very short-range air defence system Pantsir-M. This consists of a pair of GSh-6-30 six-barreled 30 mm cannons with a rate of fire of 5,000 rounds per minute each, a range of up to 3 miles, and a launcher of 32 57E6 or 57E6-E rockets.

These missiles enable targets to be engaged at a distance of up to 12 miles but are only suitable for combating drones, helicopters, or subsonic missiles. For this reason, 57E6 or 57E6-E rockets are ineffective against ballistic missiles, for which larger systems such as the S-300 or S-400 are required. However, recent events have shown that these systems also have significant issues against American MGM-140 ATACMS ballistic missiles.

It appears that the project 22800 Karakurt Tsiklon Corvette stationed in the port was either not under the defence umbrella of the anti-ballistic missile system or was destroyed shortly before the attack.

The Ukrainians have been very successful in using the MGM-140 ATACMS ballistic missiles donated by the Americans, but previous recordings showed the use of cluster warhead missiles. These would be ineffective against ships; therefore, versions with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead with a range of 300 km (186 miles) had to be used.

The missiles in question are the M48, M57, and M57E1 families. They contain a single large WAU-23/B warhead weighing about 200 kg (441 pounds) or a specialized penetrating variant that detonates with a delay after piercing the target. Since ballistic missiles can travel up to Mach 7 (8,660 km/h or 5,370 mph), they possess enough kinetic energy that a penetrating warhead can pierce through a ship's deck and detonate inside, causing catastrophic damage.

The guidance of the MGM-140 ATACMS missiles in these versions includes a combination of inertial and satellite navigation. This is slightly problematic, as the Russians can reduce the accuracy from a few meters to tens of meters. However, in the case of a large target (the project 22800 Karakurt Corvette) with a length of 67 meters (220 feet) and a width of 11 meters (36 feet), even such a decrease in accuracy makes little difference.