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Ukraine just showed off new modifications to its fleet of naval drones.
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They appear to have been outfitted with machine guns and given the ability to carry small flying drones.
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It marks Ukraine’s latest innovation for these systems, which have battered Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
Ukraine appears to be operating modified naval drones in the Black Sea, sending its crewless boats into battle against Russian helicopters and patrol boats and combat against strategic gas platforms.
The naval drones used in these recent engagements were said to have been equipped with new weapons and strike capabilities, highlighting Ukraine’s innovation in this space.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian Navy shared footage of it using naval drones to carry out an operation against oil platforms held by Moscow off the coast of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. Kyiv said the mission targeted surveillance systems at the facility.
Ukraine typically loads its naval drones with explosives and drives them directly into targets; they detonate on impact. Footage of the oil platform operation showed the drones being used in this capacity, but the drone boats also served as a launching platform for smaller first-person view (FPV) drones.
This strategy depicted in the video essentially saw the naval systems converted into drone-carrying motherships. At one point, the FPV drones can even be seen chasing after multiple individuals on the oil platform. It’s unclear when, exactly, this operation took place.
A few days later, on Monday, the Security Service of Ukraine shared footage of its “Sea Baby” naval drones engaging in a firefight with Russian helicopters, aircraft, and patrol boats that tried to intercept them in the Kerch Bay off the coast of Crimea.
The SBU said that its newly modified Sea Baby drones had been equipped with large-caliber machine guns and automatic target acquisition. “The Russian pilots considered themselves hunters and counted on easy hunting, but they became the prey, because the naval drones opened fire in return,” it said.
Ukraine said the drones struck a barge that was transporting military equipment during the operation, which took place Thursday night.
Business Insider could not immediately verify the reported details of the footage of the recent naval drone engagements.
The two recent engagements appear to be the first public showcasing of their new capabilities. It is not, however, the first time Ukraine has innovated with its naval drones; Kyiv also equipped them with rocket and missile launchers earlier this year.
Ukraine fields several different variants of its domestically produced naval drones, including the Sea Baby platforms used by the SBU last week. These systems have allowed Kyiv, which lacks a traditional navy, to wage an asymmetrical warfare campaign against Russia and its Black Sea Fleet.
This campaign has been a major area of success for Ukraine, which has sunk, destroyed, or damaged at least 32 medium and large Russian naval vessels since the war started. Kyiv has also driven the Black Sea Fleet away from its long-held headquarters in Crimea and forced it to relocate across the waterway to the port of Novorossiysk in southwestern Russia.
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