customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

summary

updatedDate

knowledgeQuestion

disableOffPlatformContent

published

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Business Insider

Ukraine’s security service (SBU) said its Sea Baby drones have become “much more” powerful and can now strike Russian ships anywhere in the Black Sea.
Artem Dehtiarenko, a spokesman for the SBU, said the drones have been upgraded to carry over a tonne of explosives across over 1,000km (620 miles), according to Ukrainian media outlets.
This is up from 800kg and a distance of about 800km (500 miles).
“Today, the SBU can attack enemy ships virtually anywhere across the Black Sea,” he said, according to a translation by Ukrinform.
Dehtiarenko did not disclose the technical details but said that specialists from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service, and others had created the “next-generation drones”, per media outlet Rubryka.
He added that Sea Baby drones have been used to strike 11 Russian ships, including the patrol ship Pavel Derzhavin in October and the Olenegorsky Gornyak in August, per the outlet.


The SBU and Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The reported upgrades come as a spokesman for Ukraine’s navy said in a Facebook post earlier this week that Russia had pulled its last Black Sea Fleet warship out of Crimea.
Ukraine has heavily targeted Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, using aerial drones, sea drones and anti-ship missiles.
Earlier this year, Ukraine’s military claimed to have destroyed a third of the fleet, and in March, the UK’s Ministry of Defence declared the Black Sea Fleet “functionally inactive”.
This is the latest reported upgrade Ukraine’s Sea Baby drones have undergone, as part of attempts to offset Russia’s naval superiority.
In January, the SBU released video footage which it claimed showed Sea Baby drones firing missiles at Russian vessels.
And in March, the Financial Times’ Ukraine correspondent, Christopher Miller, reported – citing an unnamed Ukrainian intelligence official – that Ukraine had placed rockets onto its naval drones to hit land targets.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported last month that four Russian ships, including the missile corvette Samum and patrol ship Pavel Derzhavin, were hit by mines laid by Sea Baby drones.
Brig Gen Ivan Lukashevych, the mastermind behind Ukraine’s fleet of naval drones, told the Journal that they were being marshalled into squads of up to 20 drones that can replicate the abilities of a single warship.

Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, wrote last week that drone operations in the Black Sea have been so successful that they are sparking a fundamental rethink in the UK, France, the US and elsewhere about how drones may affect future naval operations.
Clark cited the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative, a month-long plan to field air and naval drones at scale, which he said could be used to help counter a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
“Ukraine’s small, low-cost sea drones are offering a compelling view of future tactics and capabilities,” he said.
However, while Russia may have lost naval superiority and sea control over the Black Sea, it does not mean that Ukraine has control of the Black Sea either, Basil Germond, an expert in international security at Lancaster University in the UK, said.
But it does mean that Russia’s options at sea are now minimal, he told BI.
Read the original article on Business Insider


Zelensky orders war’s biggest reshuffle to give Ukraine ‘new energy’

‘Best benefits’: Malaysia’s Anwar visits Russia as Asian leaders defy West over Putin

US weighs arming Ukraine with long-range JASSM missiles that could strike Russian cities

Ukraine arms chief and 4 ministers resign in government shake-up

Ukraine war

Ukraine says its Sea Baby drones can now hit Russian ships anywhere in Black Sea

A Ukrainian “Sea Baby” surface drone is seen in a screengrab from a video released in August. Photo: Security Service of Ukraine via Reuters

The Russian Navy’s improved kilo-class submarine Kolpino sails during the Navy Day parade in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea, in July 2020. Photo: Reuters

Ukrainian start-ups create low-cost robots to fight Russia: ‘war is mathematics’

Employees at a start-up run by entrepreneur Andrii Denysenko can put together an unstaffed ground vehicle called the Odyssey in four days at a shed used by the company. Photo: AP

Andrii Denysenko, CEO of design and production bureau UkrPrototyp, stands by Odyssey, an 800kg ground drone prototype, at a corn field in northern Ukraine. Photo: AP

Russia claims control of Urozhaine village in Ukraine’s Donetsk region

Russian soldiers at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. On Sunday, Russia said its forces had taken control of the village of Urozhaine in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Photo: Russian Defence Ministry Press Service via AP

How China and US are racing to win the game of drones, from the sky to the sea

 Illustration: Henry Wong

An artist’s Impression of China’s Type 076 amphibious assault carrier which appears to be a combined platform for drones and helicopters. Photo: Handout

A Ukrainian serviceman attaches a shell to a drone near the Russian border in the Kharkiv region. Photo: Reuters

Taiwanese soldiers deploy an unmanned aerial vehicle during a drill simulating defence of an attack from the Chinese mainland. Photo: AP

An image of China’s supersonic unmanned aerial vehicle the WZ-8 captured from Chinese social media. Photo: Weibo

News

World

Russia & Central Asia

The drones have been upgraded to carry over a tonne of explosives across more than 1,000km, and have been used to strike 11 enemy vessels


The drones have been upgraded to carry over a tonne of explosives across more than 1,000km, and have been used to strike 11 enemy vessels.
