Ukrainian have been adopting new-age war tactics faster than anyone has imagined.
The country has been able to wage unique asymmetric warfare against a much larger force.
The Russian Black Sea fleet has been on the crosshair.
On 14 April, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that the Russian Navy’s Black Sea
flagship RTS Moskva (121) had been sunk. The frontline warship had a triple-layered air
defense system but was unable to stop the two incoming Ukrainian Neptune Anti-Ship Missiles.
Another attack has now taken place.
On 29 October, the home of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol,
Crimea came under attack.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how Ukraine assaulted the Russian Navy's
Black Sea Fleet ? Let's get started.
As per reports, 16 unmanned systems - 9 aerial and 7 naval were used for this.
The coordinated attack marks a unique moment in the history of warfare.
Interestingly, about a month back, Russians had found an unmanned boat washed up on Omega Bay,
outside the entrance to Sevastopol harbor. The same craft is thought to have been used
at the weekend to ram into the Russian frigate.
Some experts have stated that commercially available boats
or jet-ski have been modified for this mission.
It is believed that a remotely controlled camera and infrared sensor has been attached to the
vessel which was laden with explosives and outer contours had fuses attached.
When the craft rammed its target, the fuse activated the explosive.
The attack craft appears to be ingenious, but ultimately a simple suicide craft.
Ukrainian experts said they were particularly impressed by the fact that the country’s navy was
able to coordinate the drones more than 100 miles or 160 km from its coast, using the weight of
numbers – in both sea and air – to get to the area outside the harbor and possibly even within it.
The actual impact is unclear as of now.
Russian news agency TASS reported that all the air drones had been destroyed.
Ukraine released a video that showed a naval drone targeting the Black Sea Fleet’s
Admiral Makarov Project 11356 frigate, which Russian sources said was damaged.
Viewers may note that it replaced the Moskva as the Black Sea Fleet’s flagship.
Satellite footage from 1 November shows Admiral Grigorovich-class
frigates Admiral Makarov moored in Sevastopol.
Ivan Golubets Project 266M minesweeper is also believed to have been hit.
Highly sophisticated drones are being used for some time now.
American Predator initiated a new era of unmanned air combat where controllers
sat halfway around the world and knocked out targets with high-precision weapons.
But less sophisticated systems are also coming to the fore as unmanned systems are proliferating.
Relatively simple systems have been used in
recent times to mount targeted attacks on individuals as well as on infrastructure
1. On 4 August 2018, Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela was attacked.
Two small drones carrying explosives were detonated while President Maduro delivered an
outdoor speech, possibly in an attempt to kill the president and other government officials.
The incident occurred in the middle of a speech he was giving commemorating the Bolivarian National
Guard's 81st anniversary. While the motive behind the episode remains unclear and the
President was not killed, it demonstrated the lethal potential of unmanned systems.
2. On 14 September 2019, facilities of Saudi Arabia's oil company Aramco
located in the east of the country came under attack. As per reports,
the raid which began at 4 AM was carried out using 18 drones and 7 missiles.
The world’s biggest oil refinery near the city of Abqaiq and a refinery near Khurais, where Saudi’s
second-largest oil field is located were targeted. The attack made crude oil prices jump temporarily.
3. On 12 October 2000, extremists rammed an explosive-laden ship into the side of
the American destroyer during a refueling stop in Yemen. The blast ripped a 40-foot-wide hole near
the waterline of the USS Cole, killing 17 U.S. sailors and injuring nearly 40 other crew members.
Iran is known to be an early adopter of improvised explosive-laden drone boats and has since evolved
its capabilities in this regard. But Iran's early use of improvised explosive-laden drone boats —
Tehran has since evolved its capabilities in this regard. It has developed tactics to employ these
fast attack craft in the constrained Strait of Hormuz to take on much larger warships.
The Russian ambassador to the UK has claimed UK special forces
were involved in the Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow’s Black Sea fleet.
Andrei Kelin told Sky News: “We perfectly know about [the] participation of British
specialists in [the] training, preparation and execution of violence against the Russian
infrastructure and the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. We know that it has been done.”
He claimed evidence had been handed to the British ambassador and that
it would “become public pretty soon”. Kelin added: “This is a warning actually that
Britain is too deep in this conflict. It means the situation is becoming more and more dangerous.”
Russian officials have claimed a Royal Navy unit directed operations from the southern Ukrainian
port of Ochakiv. The UK has dismissed this as “false claims of an epic scale”.
The Kremlin has also accused the Royal Navy of “directing and coordinating” attacks on the
Nord Stream undersea gas pipelines in September. Britain has said Moscow is making the accusations
to detract from its failing military campaign in Ukraine.
Even if the damage to Makarov is limited, it should be a wake-up call.
Admiral Makarov which is an Admiral Grigorovich-class frigate is a modern warship that
was laid down at the Yantar Shipyard in February 2012 and commissioned on 25 December 2017.
The potential loss of such an asset to much cheaper unmanned crafts will not
only be very embarrassing but also a major tactical setback.
The Russian navy must reassess the situation - it has long been known
that warships are at their most vulnerable in or close to shore,
where its ability to maneuver or bring all their weapons into play is constrained.
From the Ukrainian perspective, a mission of this
kind is a physiological victory and goes a long way in keeping the Russians nervous.
After the Crimea bridge attack, the assault on Black Sea Fleet
headquarters is a sign of an increasingly confident Ukrainian military that is able
to think 'outside the box' and deploy unconventional tactics.