Kalibr cruise missiles from Caspian Sea

Those who watch the air routes on the main tracking sites may have noticed that something has changed in the Caspian Sea area in recent days.

The air routes have in fact moved much further east, leaving all the airspace between the Caspian Sea and Ukraine free.

Why? An answer is provided by a twitter thread posted by the @MT_Anderson account.

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🇷🇺CASPIAN SEA FLOTILLA ACTIVITY🇷🇺
Spotted on Oct 18, 🇷🇺GEPARD CLASS FRIGATE about 177 KM N/NE of Makhachkala (home port of both TATARSTAN & flagship DAGESTAN). The GEPARD CLASS is capable of launching KALIBR missiles and was most likely used to hit targets in Syria (2015). pic.twitter.com/S2PkjKr5Cn

— MT Anderson (@MT_Anderson) October 18, 2022

In the western part of the Caspian Sea there would in fact be one or more Russian Navy Gepard class frigates (Project 11661) in action.

These frigates, equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles are in fact participating in the bombing raids against Ukraine with their own missiles.

This is therefore the reason why air routes that cross the airspace separating the Caspian Sea and Ukraine are no longer permitted.