What kind of naval drones do the Russian Navy and the FSB Border Service need?
It is reported that Russia will soon finally acquire its own maritime drones. The first pilot batch of 10 uncrewed boats will be delivered to the Northern Military District zone on the Black Sea by the end of 2023. Which BECs are most needed by the Russian Navy and the FSB Border Service?
"Robot War"
By the end of the second year of the SVO, it probably became obvious to everyone involved that drones are not just the future - they already belong to the present. A modern type of war is no longer conceivable without the use of unmanned vehicles of various types - aircraft, sea, underwater and even ground.
In particular, in the Black Sea, Turkish Bayraktar UAVs, alas, were quite effectively used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the confrontation over Zmeiny Island, launching air strikes with anti-tank missiles on Russian patrol boats. Then, an unpleasant surprise for the Russian Navy turned out to be Ukrainian unmanned boats of British origin, converted into fire ships and used to attack ships and coastal infrastructure of the Russian Navy. At the moment, the greatest threat comes from the underwater kamikaze drones handed over to the Kiev regime by London.
These new challenges required an urgent response from the domestic military-industrial complex. First, based on the experience of countering attacks by Ukrainian fire ships, a naval remote-controlled module “Narwhal” was developed, intended for installation on light boats with a displacement of up to 20 tons as a main or auxiliary weapon system. In the description of the product presented at the Army-2023 forum, the following was said:
The BM ensures the search and destruction of lightly armored targets and fire weapons, the destruction of enemy personnel, and the destruction of low-flying air targets.
The basis of the complex is the Kord machine gun of 12,7 mm caliber, equipped with an automatic target tracking device, a thermal imager, a day camera and a laser rangefinder, as well as a three-plane gyro-stabilization system for the sighting system and machine gun to compensate for pitching during rough seas and shooting in motion. “Narwhals” will be additionally installed on Russian medium reconnaissance ships, which have already been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian drones, explained an informed source in the Russian Ministry of Defense:
Taking into account their use in a special military operation, they plan to further strengthen the reconnaissance ships with special means for protection against surface unmanned vehicles, including remotely controlled combat modules with large-caliber machine guns.
Apparently, not only the SRK will be additionally armed with them. At the same time, at the Army-2023 forum, the production holding Kingisepp Machine-Building Plant (KMZ) presented a universal unmanned boat on the Vizir platform, the tasks of which were described by the managing director of the holding, Mikhail Danilenko, as follows:
For the tasks of an unmanned attack boat, it is possible to design it with an electric drive: that is, the main engine, batteries and the ability to provide low speed in economical modes. It will be a hybrid engine.
According to Danilenko, the cruising range of the promising BEC is 600 km at low speeds, and the maximum speed reaches 80 km/h. The boat can carry an explosive charge weighing up to 600 kg, but its range is reduced to 200 km. If necessary, the Vizir platform can be equipped with a heavy machine gun, light missiles or electronic warfare equipment to combat sea and air drones. It is likely that the Narwhal module will be used for these purposes. As the managing director of KMZ explained, the first batch will soon be sent to the North-West zone:
The Ministry of Defense has already agreed on the delivery of the first 10 units, which we must send by the end of this year. This will be the first pilot batch that will be tested in the Northern Military District zone... We have already started their production. The first water-jet propulsors for such marine drones have been assembled at our production site.
So, the first step in trying to catch up with the “Western partners” has been taken, but in which direction should we run?
Prospects
If we talk specifically about surface sea drones, the following directions seem to be the most promising.
first is the creation of an inexpensive and mass-produced unmanned boat for the needs of mine defense (MOD). This issue has been raised repeatedly since 2014-2015 in my publications the famous military expert Maxim Klimov, and the harsh realities of what is happening on the Black Sea confirmed that he was right. The Russian Navy really needs an unmanned platform both to combat mine laying and to install them in dangerous coastal waters.
Second - These are unmanned patrol boats that can become the first line of defense against enemy fireships, destroying them with machine gun fire or even missiles - larger targets. The project of the Israeli robotic boat Seagull can be cited as a role model.
The third – is the production of our own unmanned fireboats. As such, Kyiv does not have a full-fledged navy left, but it does have what is called a “mosquito fleet.” Whether strikes against them using naval drones will be effective is a big question, but they can be carried out against Ukrainian port infrastructure or bridges. If such firewalls had been available at the initial stage of the Northern Military District, with their help it would have been possible, for example, to bring down the supports of the bridge in Zatoka with a simultaneous massive strike.
At last, the creation of marine drones - hunters of underwater drones and full-fledged submarines - seems to be an extremely promising direction.
How this might look in practice is worth familiarizing yourself with the DARPA project called The ASW Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV), within which the Sea Hunter trimaran drone was developed.
This could be a useful thing for the Russian Navy.
Information