Defense Forces Struck Niobium Radar Station and 18 UAV Storage Facilities at Primorsko-Akhtarsk Air Base

Ukrainian defense forces struck the Russian Niobium radar station and 18 warehouses used to store drones at the Primorsko-Akhtarsk air base in the Krasnodar Krai of the Russian Federation.

This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Damage to the facilities was confirmed following a follow-up assessment of the strike’s effects.

The Primorsko-Akhtarsk air base is used by the Russian military to launch attack drones against Ukraine. It is also used to store and maintain combat aircraft carrying out missions in the southern sector.

Russia began actively expanding its infrastructure for storing and preparing UAVs at the airfield in January 2026. As of October 18, 2025, there were 24 hangars on site, each capable of housing two drones.

By January 29, 2026, the Russian military had expanded at least eight hangars, increasing their capacity from two to five UAVs, and had built three more new ones.

As a result, the site had 16 standard hangars and 17 expanded ones in operation. In addition, construction was underway on 10 more large hangars.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the airfield has been used for airstrikes against Ukraine. Shahed-type strike UAVs are launched from it, and manned aircraft also take off from there.

The airfield’s location, approximately 300–400 km from the nearest unoccupied territories of Ukraine, allows the Russian military to use it as a rear base for preparing and launching strike drones.

Earlier, Militarnyi reported that on August 20, the Ukrainian Defense Forces struck the Akhtubinsk military air base in the Astrakhan region of the Russian Federation and damaged a Su-34 front-line bomber.

As a result of the strike, the Su-34 front-line bomber was damaged, and a noticeable fuel spill was observed near it.

After the attack, the Russians moved the remaining aircraft within the airfield or evacuated them to other bases.

Niobium-SV

The 1L125 Niobium-SV radar—a mobile, three-coordinate, meter-band radar system—was developed specifically for the air defense of the Russian Ground Forces. It entered service in 2016.

The radar is designed to detect, track, and identify aerial targets of all types—airplanes, helicopters, cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

It is reported that this radar operates at ranges from 5 to 500 kilometers, with a maximum altitude for detecting air targets of 65 kilometers. The station’s antenna is mounted on a four-axle KamAZ truck chassis. The radar’s crew consists of three people. The station can simultaneously track up to 300 targets.