Satellite and thermal data confirm drone strike on Russian airbase in Adygea

TLDR

• Strike drones hit the Khanskaya military airbase in Russia's Adygea region overnight on October 4, with NASA satellite thermal data confirming a resulting fire.¹
• Ukraine's SBU said its drones, operated by its "Alpha" Special Operations Center, struck a Su-35 and a Su-34 along with an ammunition depot on the base.²
• Satellite images published afterward show visible damage at the site, though they alone do not independently confirm the two aircraft were destroyed.³

Satellites confirm fire at Russian airbase

Open-source satellite monitoring confirmed a Ukrainian drone strike on the Khanskaya military airbase near Maykop in Russia's North Caucasus region of Adygea, roughly 500 kilometers from Ukrainian-controlled territory.¹

Why it matters: the base hosts Su-34 and Su-35 jets that Russia uses to launch guided glide bombs against Ukrainian frontline cities, so strikes on it directly target the aircraft responsible for some of the heaviest ongoing damage to Ukraine.²

Driving the news:

• Drone activity over the base was first reported at 1:42 a.m. local time on October 4 and continued until around 5:34 a.m., with Russian monitoring channels reporting active air defense fire throughout.¹
• NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System detected a high-temperature fire signature across the base's perimeter during the attack, independently corroborating the strike reports.¹
• Ukraine's Security Service said drones from its "Alpha" Special Operations Center struck a Su-35 fighter and a Su-34 fighter-bomber on the base, along with an ammunition depot, and estimated the aircrafts' combined export value at roughly 150 million dollars.²
• Satellite imagery published after the strike shows visible damage at the site, though it does not by itself confirm the destruction of the specific aircraft the SBU named.³

The big picture: the strike is the second major long-range hit on Russian aviation and drone-launch infrastructure within 24 hours, after a separate attack on the Tsymbulovo drone base in the Oryol region on October 3.¹