The satellite showed how everything burned down after the strike on the S-400
But was it really Neptune?
OSINT analyst H I Sutton posted a satellite image of Cape Tarkhankut in the temporarily occupied Crimea on his Twitter profile, where the racist S-400 was destroyed on August 23, 2023. As we can see, the strike was so effective and spectacular that the area of fires from secondary detonation was many times larger than the area of the strike itself, where the already utilized Russian SAM was located.
Some media outlets have already spread allegations that the strike could have been carried out by a modified “Neptune“. It would seem that it is quite easy to get an impression of the spectacular consequences of using Neptune against ground targets. But it is also worth analyzing whether the Neptune could have been used for this strike, and whether there are other options.
The option of a Neptune strike may look more than logical. At the end of 2021, Luch Design Bureau head Korostylov spoke of plans to adapt this missile system to work on ground targets. And if the Russians are using their X-35 and P-800 anti-ship missiles to fire on our land infrastructure, then our “mirror response” with Neptune strikes on important ground targets of the Rashists is technically quite possible.
But based on the current doctrine of warfare at sea, which Ukraine follows, firing Neptunes at land targets seems to be a waste. Because in our current situation, preserving the existing stockpile of missile defense is necessary as an element of deterring the enemy, who must be kept in a state of constant worry so that he does not even think about plans for a sea landing on Odesa. In particular, they are afraid of the coastal anti-ship systems at the disposal of the Navy.
If we go by verbal statements alone, we should not overlook the fact that, according to the racists, our defenders destroyed that racist S-400 using Brimstone 2 missiles. But in the case of this version, there are even more arguments against it, and they all rest on the characteristics of the missiles themselves. Namely, whether the power of the warhead is sufficient for such a large-scale detonation, and whether the warhead under Brimstone 2 can be placed on a speedboat.
If we have already considered the version with the possible use of Neptune, then we should also consider the version that the Harpoon anti-ship system could have been used to strike the enemy S-400. Moreover, the Block II version of this missile can be programmed to strike ground targets, including air defense systems.
But it may well turn out that in reality, this strike could have been carried out using a completely different weapon, which we have no idea about yet.
