The crews of the Black Sea Fleet’s missile corvettes held firings and practiced destroying a notional enemy’s aircraft during drills in the Black Sea, the Black Sea Fleet’s press office reported on Monday, Tass News reports. 

"The Black Sea Fleet’s small missile ships Graivoron and Vyshny Volochyok operating as part of a tactical group held joint air defense drills with the Fleet’s naval aviation in a final inspection for the winter training period," the press office said in a statement.

The teams of the shipborne air defense combat posts detected and identified adversary air targets. The aircraft were notionally destroyed by the warships’ air defense weapons as the air objects came within a destruction range, the press office specified.

"As part of the drills, the warships fired the guns against the air targets that simulated the notional enemy’s air attack weapons. The crew of the small missile ship Graivoron thwarted an air attack by employing a Gibka air-to-surface missile launcher while the combat teams of the missile corvette Vyshny Volochyok destroyed an air target firing an AK-630M02 ‘Duet’ artillery system," the statement says.

The exercise was held at a Black Sea combat training range, the press office added.

The small missile ships Graivoron and Vyshny Volochyok are Project 21631 Buyan-M-class corvettes outfitted with the latest artillery, missile, anti-saboteur, air defense and radio-technical armament, including the most advanced Kalibr-NK precision missile system designated to strike naval and coastal targets.