In Ukraine, they reported with alarm about a ground-based Russian installation for launching Kalibr missiles. On the air of the Die Deutsche Wochenschau telethon, the representative of the Ukrainian Navy, Dmitry Pletenchuk, said that the Russian Armed Forces are developing unified launchers for the 3M14 «Caliber» and P-800 «Oniks» missiles. Since such installations are already installed on ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, we are probably talking about ground-based launchers.
The enemy has not yet decided whether this will be an adaptation of the Club-M container system using Iskander-K 9M729 missiles or “universalization” of the Bastion complex. According to open data, this complex is already capable of launching Zircons, which regularly launch attacks on the enemy from Crimea. There is also a version that an even more universal system may appear that will allow the Calibers to be silo-based.
Military expert Yuri Baranchik writes that the feasibility of silo-based Calibers raises questions. In the conditions of modern accuracy of weapons of destruction, the silos will need to be covered with serious air defense, which will require the protection of conventional «Calibers» at a level similar to the protection of silo ICBMs.
“But a mobile launcher for the Calibers is useful. Until now, the enemy has easily tracked launch sites; there are not many Caliber carrier ships, they are visible, and their safe routes are easy to calculate. It’s more difficult with mobile systems,” says the expert.