An article published by the Izvestia website, quoting Admiral Valentin Selivanov, former Chief of the Naval Staff, provides information on the organization of Russian coastal defense in the years to come. Thus, the Russian navy will deploy a significant number of “small ships”, without specifying whether they are piloted or unmanned ships, whose function will be to locate enemy ships, then guide coastal defense missiles towards these targets, preventing batteries from having to use their own radars, and therefore making them much more difficult to spot, and to destroy preventively. It is, nothing more, nothing less, than a “cooperative engagement” type approach.
Unlike the West, Russia deploys a significant coastal defense force, composed of long-range Bal and Bastion anti-ship missile batteries, extending the air access denial bubble to surface strikes. However, coastal batteries are by nature vulnerable to air strikes such as cruise missiles that can be launched from submarines, for example. By using small ships, and very probably in the near future, surface and underwater drones, to ensure the detection and guidance of missiles, coastal batteries, no longer needing to activate their radars, will be very difficult to spot, therefore difficult to destroy.
The article also mentions the extension of these capabilities to the Tzirkon hypersonic anti-ship missile, currently being developed in Russia. And this information is, if proven, more than interesting. On the one hand, this confirms that the Tzirkon will indeed have a controllable guidance system, contrary to the reservations expressed in the West.
On the other hand, the Tzirkon was until now perceived as a missile close to the Kinzhal, namely having a ballistic trajectory. To reach its target, it will have to be equipped with satellite trajectory control in the rear area, guidance from the front being very unlikely, given the thickness of the thermal protections necessary for a missile flying at this speed. To guide the missile, these small ships must therefore be able to transmit target position information in real time to the satellite guidance system, and therefore have an information and communication system covering the entire theater. Not only is it a cooperative engagement system, but a very efficient system, capable of processing information to guide hypersonic missiles, using satellite communication.
If the information was confirmed, which still remains to be done, Izvestia is a credible media, but it has often relayed information presented as proven when it was a hypothesis, this will assume that Russia is in a position to advanced mastery of cooperative engagement techniques, which will no longer constitute a tactical advantage for Western forces.