kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s state security service unveiled an improved marine drone that it says can now operate anywhere in the Black Sea, carry heavier weapons and use artificial intelligence for targeting.
Ukraine has used unmanned naval drones to attack Russian shipping and infrastructure in the Black Sea. The Security Service of Ukraine, known by its Ukrainian acronym SBU, has credited the attacks by the unmanned vessel known as “Sea Baby” with forcing a strategic shift in Russia’s naval operations.
The Sea Baby’s range was extended from 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) to 1,500 kilometers (930 miles), the SBU said. It can carry up to 2,000 kilograms (about 4,400 pounds) of payload, SBU officials said.
In a demonstration attended by The Associated Press, variants included vessels equipped with a multiple rocket launcher and another with a stabilized machine gun turret.
SBU Brigade. Gen. Ivan Lukashevych said the new ships also feature AI-assisted friendly or enemy targeting systems and can launch small air attack drones and multi-layered self-destruct systems to avoid capture.
Developing a new type of naval warfare
Drone strikes have been used in successful attacks on 11 Russian vessels, including frigates and missile carriers, the SBU said, prompting the Russian navy to move its main base from Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk on Russia’s Black Sea coast.
“The SBU became the first in the world to pioneer this new type of naval warfare, and we continue to promote it,” Lukashevych said, adding that the Sea Baby has evolved from a single-use attack craft to a reusable, multipurpose platform that expands Ukraine’s offensive options.
Authorities asked that the time and location of the demonstration not be made public for security reasons.
The ships are operated remotely from a mobile control center inside a van, where operators use a bank of screens and controls.
“The cohesion of the crew members is probably the most important thing. We constantly work on that,” said an operator who was identified only by his call sign, “Scout,” according to Ukrainian military protocol.
Ukrainian marine drones helped push back Russian navy
The SBU also said marine drones helped carry out other high-profile attacks, including repeated attacks on the Crimean Bridge, the most recent targeting its underwater supports in an attempt to render it unusable for heavy military transport.
The Sea Baby program is partially funded by public donations through a state initiative and is coordinated with Ukraine’s military and political leaders.
The evolution from expendable attack ships to reusable networked drones marks a major advance in asymmetric naval warfare, Lukashevych said.
“In this new product, we have installed rocket weapons that will allow us to work from a long distance out of the range of enemy fire. We can use such platforms to transport heavy weapons,” he said. “Here we can show Ukrainians the most effective use of the money they have donated to us.”
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Associated Press writers Alex Babenko, Yehor Konovalov and Volodymyr Yurchuk contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine