Analysis: Russian Navy's frigate downs Bayraktar drone with Shtil missile


According to information published by Tass on April 26, 2022, Shtil-1 antiaircraft missiles fired by the Admiral Essen frigate downed a Bayraktar drone over the Black Sea on April 12. The new missiles confirmed counter-drone effectiveness.
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Russian Vyborg Shipyard laid the Purga ice class coastguard ship of project 23550 925 001 Russian Project 11356 frigate Admiral Essen firing Shtil missile (Picture source: Russian MoD)


The drone was conducting reconnaissance over the peninsula and monitored Russian warships and ground forces. The ministry released the footage of the missile launch.

Another two Project 11356 frigates — the Admiral Grigorovich and the Admiral Makarov are armed with Shtil. The three frigates, including Admiral Essen, have a cruising capacity of 30 days. Besides Shtil-1, they are also armed with Kalibr missiles, A-190 universal artillery gun, 553 mm torpedoes, and RBU-6000 antisubmarine rocket launcher.

Shtil missile

The multichannel seaborne Shtil-1 destroys air targets at a range of 50 km and altitudes of 5 meters to 15 km. It provides round defense of warships against modern fighter jets, drones, anti-ship, and antiradar missiles. Shtil-1 can strike at warships and small vessels, and track and attack from two to 12 targets.

The outstanding characteristics are due to the innovative vertical launcher 3S90E.1 supplied by Technodinamika Holding for Admiral Essen in November 2014. It considerably decreased the radar signature of the frigate and increased the rate of antiaircraft fire six times.

The launcher has a small size and weight. It was designed by the Yaskin Start enterprise and is a development of the Shtil complex. The design was changed for the launcher to fit into corvettes.

The modular design helped vary the number of launchers depending on the class of warships. They can be installed in the bow and stern. Shtil-1 of the frigate has 24 transportation-launch containers with one missile each. Shtil-1 can fire the missiles at an interval of two seconds. Previous complexes with t-slot launchers needed 12 seconds for the second launch. The launchers are located under the deck to decrease the radar signature of the warship.

Shtil-1 fires a guided 9M317ME missile, which is a development of the ground-based Buk missile. It has one stage and control fins of 820-mm span in the back. The missile is powered by a solid-fuel engine.

Admiral Essen is a frigate of the Admiral Grigorovich class of the Russian Navy named in honor of Admiral Nikolai Ottovich von Essen. Construction was begun in 2011 and the ship was launched in 2014. It is based with the Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol.