Russia’s Pacific Fleet troops fired the first Bastion coastal defense mobile anti-ship missile systems in the Far East Primorsky Territory, the Eastern Military District’s Pacific Fleet spokesman said Friday.
“The Pacific Fleet coastal forces’ missile formation troops conduct the first launch of a new ‘Bastion’ missile system that entered service in 2016,” Vladimir Matveev said, adding that he expects the new system to enter combat duty next month.
The K-300P or Bastion-P is a Russian mobile costal defense missile system. The “P” letter in the designation denotes “mobile”. This coastal defense missile system is known in the West as SSC-5 Stooge. Development began in the 1990s.
The system is designed for the destruction of various surface ships from an enemy’s landing squadrons, convoys, carrier strike groups, as well as single vessels and land-based radiocontrast targets in conditions of intensive fire and electronic countermeasures.
The system uses the P-800 Oniks (Yakhont, SS-N-26 “Strobile”) anti-ship cruise missile and has a maximum range of 300 km. The missile system is mounted on a mobile vehicle that can deploy its missiles in under five minutes and remain on active standby over a period of 3–5 days.
The Bastion-P has been adopted by the Russian armed forces. First and so far the only 3 systems were delivered in 2010. These are in service with the Black Sea Fleet. However there were no new orders of this system from the Russian MoD. This coastal defense system has been exported to Syria (2 systems) and Vietnam (2 systems).
The main role of the Bastion-P is to engage various surface ships. It can also engage carrier battle groups, convoys or landing craft. In some cases missiles fired from this system can target surface targets.
The Bastion-P launcher carries two P-800 Oniks/Yakhont (SS-N-26 Strobile) anti-ship cruise missiles. These have a range of 300 km with hi-low flight trajectory and 120 km with low-low flight trajectory. It is worth noting that the same missile was used as a basis for the BRAHMOS cruise missile.
The missile has a two-stage propulsion system. It uses solid-fuel rocket booster for initial acceleration and liquid-fuel ramjet for sustained supersonic cruise. The booster is ejected by the airflow after it has burned out.
The warhead weights about 200-250 kg. It seems that this missile can carry nuclear or conventional warheads.
