No Major Damage Seen At Russian Air Base After Drone Attack
Soaring claims about widespread destruction at the installation, which serves as a major tactical airpower hub for Russia, appear untrue.
Morozovsk Air Base, which is home to dozens of tactical jets, namely Su-34 Fullback fighter-bombers, came under a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack two evenings ago. You can read our previous reporting on the attack here. A flurry of subsequent claims of destruction followed, with outlets reporting multiple aircraft destroyed and a high price in life and other property lost. Meanwhile, Russian sources, including officials, said the drone attack was rebuffed by air defenses. We now have high-resolution satellite imagery to check those claims.
The base, located in the Rostov region of Russia, not far from the Sea of Azov that borders Ukraine, is a major operating hub for air combat operations over Ukraine.
The day before the attack, 29 jets were visible in parking areas across the facility. In the imagery obtained from Planet Labs, which was taken today, we can count the same number of aircraft, with no major damage being visible to them or to the base's infrastructure.
Two small changes between the April 4th and April 6th images are a pair of craters/scarred areas near a maintenance apron. This would indicate that some sort of aerial attack did take place, although they could be the result of wayward interceptors responding to such an attack.
While there are real limits to the amount of information commercially available satellite images can provide, we see no major impacts on the installation. Another image taken later today shows aircraft taxiing and one landing on the runway. Regardless, we must underline that there still could be damage, including to aircraft. Shrapnel effects and other small damage, which can still be catastrophic to aircraft and equipment, simply do not show up in satellite imagery, although subsequent fires and destruction could. So, this does not mean no damage occurred or the attack was outright unsuccessful, but this is what we can see with the imagery available.
Morozovsk Air Base is a prime target for Ukraine, due to the high-value of the aircraft based there, their relevance to the conflict, and its close proximity to Ukrainian territory. Russia knows this and, in general, has bolstered its air defenses at high-risk bases near Ukraine as the drone campaign against such targets has expanded.
Just because the attack on Morozovsk doesn't appear to have been highly successful this time, doesn't mean that will be the case in future attacks, should they occur. Ukraine's long-range kamikaze drone capabilities are expanding at a bewildering pace with each passing day.
For now, it looks like Morozovsk made it out largely unscathed.
Contact the editor: tyler@twz.com
