At the weekend Ukraine attacked the Russian Black Sea Fleet off Sevastopol. Military videos show floating drones approaching warships. But how do these unmanned combat boats work?
The footage is spectacular: Over the weekend, the Ukrainian military released two videos showing drone boats attacking warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet off the Crimean Peninsula. You can see how the unmanned watercraft are approaching their targets at high speed, including the flagship “Admiral Marakov”, and in one case they are being fired upon.
The Russian side announced on Saturday evening that nine unmanned aerial drones and seven naval drones had attacked ships of the Black Sea Fleet. The minesweeper “Iwan Golubez” and equipment in a bay were damaged. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow did not comment on possible damage to the “Admiral Marakov”.
But what secret weapon did Ukraine use for its attack? Based on the video recordings, experts are certain that a naval drone of the same type washed ashore near Sevastopol at the end of September. Photos taken at the time show a hull about the size of a kayak, on which a camera, an infrared scope and a flat antenna, presumably for navigation, are mounted. With two sensors attached to the bow, the naval drones are likely to ram their target, thereby activating an explosive charge in the boat’s belly.
Combat boats loaded with explosives are not a new invention. Italy and Japan used such weapons as early as World War II. In recent years, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have caused a stir with bombing boats in the Red Sea.
But where did the weapon come from? Moscow accuses Ukraine of using the navigation technology of the swimming drones from Canada. The portal Navalnews speculates that these could be improvised boats made in Ukraine. But it is also conceivable that they come from US production. According to the Pentagon, Ukraine has already received an unknown number of naval drones for coastal defense from Washington. Poland is said to have already delivered similar watercraft. It is also possible that Kyiv subsequently modified drones received from the West. The only thing that is clear is that officially no NATO country has this weapon in its arsenal.
While Saturday’s attack may not have been as successful as hoped, alarm bells are likely to be ringing in Russia’s navy. Because the incident shows how vulnerable Moscow’s fleet is to mass drone attacks.