The ongoing drone wars in Ukraine may be entering a new phase. A video has surfaced showing what is reportedly a Russian First Person-View (FPV) drone attack a Ukrainian unmanned surface ship (USV). It’s the first time we’ve seen this kind of engagement.
The 13-second video shows the FPV drone spinning its rotors, making a low approach towards the USV and crashing into its port side. The video is not dated and the Russian Telegram channel that first posted the video suggests the video took place on the Black Sea.
“This is the moment when our guys can do it in a way that none of your foreign instructors can do for a lot of money,” wrote Russia’s Tactical_13 Telegram channel, which posted the video today. ‘This will remain like this forever. Glory to the Black Sea Fleet!”
The drone boat seen in the video appears to be Ukrainian MAGURA V. We cannot say for certain whether this was an actual strike or a staged event. Russia has claimed that have captured at least one MAGURA V and these boats have been used in large numbers against Russian naval interests.
We showed the video to Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR), who had never seen it before. He said the USV appeared to be a MAGURA V drone that was static in the water and had been lost at sea in a previous attack. However, he said Ukraine has already lost a number of USVs to FPV drones in attacks that started a few months ago. He would not say how many were lost in this way.
Budanov shook off the FPV attacks.
“No,” he said when asked if they concern him. “They’re just drones.”
Regardless, it is indicative of a natural evolution in drone warfare in the conflict, with FPV drones, which have come to dominate the battlefield, moving into the maritime interdiction environment, aimed at countering long-range Ukrainian drone-boat attacks . Suicide drones from the air have been used before to attack boatsbut it’s the first time we’ve seen them used against a USV.
FPV drones have a limited range and require continuous line-of-sight communication with their controllers, but for defending the approaches to key coastal areas they are relevant. This is especially true because their range can be maximized due to the lack of terrain that can interfere with their signal. Antennas placed on land, as well as aerial relays in the form of other drones, manned aircraft or even aerostats, can expand their connectivity even further. In short, they are able to hunt oncoming drone boats while also acting as precision-guided munitions that are agile enough to pursue and destroy them, although it is always more difficult than it seems. In the case of the video above, the target looks mostly stationary.
The threat posed by Ukrainian drone boats is only increasing as the attack on Russian-occupied Crimea intensifies.
Just over a week ago, we wrote about how Ukraine has equipped its widely used Sea Baby USV with Grad series artillery rockets. The missile-armed boat has reportedly already been used to attack Russian ships, although bombardment of the coast is a much more plausible use. An unnamed SBU source told The Kiev Independent that the missile-armed USV was used in battles “against Russian positions on the Kinburn Spit,” a thin stretch of coastal area near Mykolaiv on Ukraine’s southern Black Sea coast. “This technological solution is already showing powerful results,” the source said, adding that “new surprises await the enemy.”
Earlier this month, we reported that Ukraine began manipulating USVs with repurposed heat-seeking air-to-air missiles. This appears to be intended to provide the USVs with protection (or a degree of deterrence) against the Russian helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft which are increasingly used to counteract them. You can see such an encounter in the video below.
Kamikaze USVs were largely developed by Iran, which subsequently transferred the technology against Houthi militants in Yemen. These weapons actually came into their own in the continuing of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The fleet of MAGURA V and other models of the country destroyed or damaged several Russian warships and were used on July 17, 2023 attack on the Kerch BridgeVladimir Putin’s prized $4 billion period links Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula.
Ukraine has become a laboratory for drone warfare in general. In addition to attacking troops and equipment, drones eventually began fighting each other in the air. The first videos claiming to show these encounters started popping up in October 2022. In this video below you can see an alleged aerial drone duel.
These weapons provide an asymmetrical advantage to a country that no longer has a real navy, while Ukraine continues its USV attacks. Budanov told us that the GUR carried out another such attack on Russian warships in Crimea overnight, destroying four KS-701s. Tunets class high speed amphibious transport ships. The war zone could not independently verify this claim. You can see that attack, which the Russians tried to repel with fixed and rotary wings as well as small arms, in the video below.
As we have been saying for yearsIn many cases, one of the best ways to counter an unmanned vessel is to use another unmanned vessel. These can be types that operate in the same domain or in different domains, such as the FPV drone versus the drone boat as seen in the video. As these systems win more autonomy, this new reality of modern warfare will become much clearer.
“The systems are being modernized,” says Budanov said during a recent forum. “Technologies are controlled. New technologies are emerging. Over time, we will likely see the complete dominance of unmanned ships over conventional warships. At least in closed or semi-closed waters, such as the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, etc. This is certainly the way forward.”
As for defending coasts against USVs with small, explosive-laden aerial drones, this may be one of the first examples of the tactic, but it will undoubtedly quickly become an important part of coastal defense not only during the war in Ukraine, but also elsewhere in the world. .
Author’s Note: Tyler Rogoway contributed to this report.
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com
