During the night of January 5, Khmeimim base and the Tartus naval facility were reportedly attacked by militants with 13 improvised and homemade drones. The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported forces successfully repelled the attack and provided images of the downed drones. On January 11, the MoD provided an official briefing on the drone attack.

The Attack

On January 8, Russian MoD official Facebook page reported an attack that targeted Russian military facilities in Syria, specifically ten drones at Khmeimim and three drones at Tartus. According to the post, six drones were intercepted by the Russian electronic warfare units, while seven drones were eliminated by the Pantsir-S (NATO reporting name SA-22 Greyhound) anti-aircraft missile complexes. Russian MoD reported no casualties or equipment damage.

The Briefing

On January 11, the head of the Russian General Staff’s Office for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Development, Major General Alexander Novikov, provided an update during an official briefing.

Novikov focused heavily on the drones’ on-board global positioning system (GPS), which he alleged evidenced potential help from the other countries, namely United States. The Major General insisted that these parts enabled the drones military-grade precision when navigating to Khmeimim and released their bombs over the target area. The briefing included maps of the pre-programmed flight routes, which the MoD claimed to have downloaded from the captured drones. Novikov did not provide any concrete evidence to support his claims.

Here are the locations pin-pointed on the map.