 To blow up Russia's S-400 battery in Crimea, Ukraine tweaked its cruiser-sinking Neptune missile. The Ukrainian Navy reportedly used some of its Neptune anti-ship missiles in the missile's secondary land attack mode to blow up a Russian Air Force S-400 air defence battery in western Crimea, according to Forbes. It is noted that the one-tonne Neptune, can strike targets on the ground, should come as no surprise. Ukraine's Luke Design Bureau muddled the Neptune on the Russian Kh-35, itself an answer to the American Harpoon anti-ship missile, which also has a land attack mode. The Russian Air Force deployed the S-400 battery to Cape Tarkhanput in Crimea in 2016, two years after Russian forces invaded the strategic peninsula. The S-400 and its attached Podlet K-1 radar could detect and strike aircraft and missiles 200 miles away, allowing it to control the entire western Black Sea as far west as the port of Odessa in southern Ukraine. The S-400, the Podlet radar and other weapons on the Crimean Cape, including a battery of bastion anti-ship missiles, topped the list of prospective targets as Ukraine expanded its deep strike capability this year. To extend the range at which its forces can attack Russia's forces, Ukraine has acquired American-made Harpoon ground-launched anti-ship missiles, plus western-made air-launched cruise missiles, British storm shadows and French scalps. At the same time, Ukraine has developed its own deep strike munition, including S-200 ground-launched air defense missiles, that the Ukrainian Air Force modified into land attack weapons. The Ukrainian Navy made similar modifications to its Neptune ground-launched anti-ship missiles, which most famously hold and sank the Russian Navy cruiser Moskva in April 2022. The low-flying subsonic Neptune-Neptune lends itself to the land attack roll, just like its predecessor missiles the KH-35 and Harpoon do. With a 225-mile range, a Neptune battery could fire from the relative safety of Odessa and strike Russian forces across most of Crimea. The last strike on the S-400 battery might be the first time Ukraine has used the modified Neptune in anger. Russian Air Force officials surely are asking themselves why the S-400, their best air defense system, failed to intercept the very Neptune that destroyed it. The S-400 raid probably won't be the last for the upgraded Neptune.