TechUkraine's drone tactics reshape Black Sea conflict

Ukraine's drone tactics reshape Black Sea conflict

The Russian Black Sea Fleet was defeated in an encounter with a country practically devoid of warships. The key turned out to be essentially armed, remote-controlled Ukrainian watercraft, which continue to evolve. After missile drones, it's now the era of aircraft carriers.

View from an FPV sea drone attacking a Pantsir defending Crimea
View from an FPV sea drone attacking a Pantsir defending Crimea
Images source: © x (formerly twitter) | OSINTtechnical
Przemysław Juraszek

On January 5, the Ukrainians conducted an FPV drone attack on two Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft systems in the Kherson region, guarding the airspace over the northern part of Crimea.

Interestingly, the attack was carried out from what can be described as an unmanned aircraft carrier drone operating from the Black Sea. It seems to be another project by Group 13 of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) following anti-aircraft drones and artillery drones. Such attacks in the rear are very demoralizing for the Russians and require the deployment of additional forces that could be useful elsewhere.

Unmanned Ukrainian aircraft carriers — the evolution of marine drones

The Ukrainians are undertaking extensive efforts to make widespread use of unmanned systems on the battlefield. Flying drones have become common, just like marine drones, which have caused the withdrawal of Russian ships from the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

The Ukrainian unmanned aircraft carrier is most likely based on the Magura V5 project. They resemble a motorboat in appearance, approximately 5.5 metres long and 1.5 metres wide, powered by a jet propulsion system from a Sea-Doo scooter, enabling speeds up to 77 km/h.

This is accompanied by an encrypted communication system, satellite navigation, Starlink terminal, and an observation head with a day and thermal camera mounted on a mast. The difference, however, will be the abandonment of a 300/600-kilogram warhead in favour of, for example, a superstructure serving as a landing platform for FPV drones or "Baba Yaga" type drones carrying smaller specimens and a mast with an antenna providing communication with the drones.

In the case of FPV drones themselves, the range can be about 10 kilometres or slightly more. However, the use of larger "Baba Yaga" drones as signal boosters and carriers for FPV drones (there are cases of such use) can extend the operational range of the strike group to several tens of kilometres.

It is worth noting, however, that the above case appears to be more about testing the concept rather than serial production. However, if Ukraine builds a fleet of such aircraft carriers, they can significantly hinder Russia's operations on the Crimean coast.

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