What UAVs are required by the Naval Aviation of the Russian Navy

As it was promised Earlier, we will try to outline some thoughts on how we can try to preserve the existing surface composition of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, keeping in mind the Baltic Fleet as well. It is very likely that the Kiev regime will soon try to transfer its sabotage and terrorist activities to the Baltic, smoothly bringing Russia to a collision with NATO member countries.

In a certain sense, the Black Sea and Baltic fleets are united by the fact that they are forced to serve in closed waters. In the Black Sea, before the start of the Northern Military District, it was believed that our Russian Navy with its “Calibers” and “Onyxes” was in complete control of the situation, leaving Ukraine with its “mosquitoes” no chance. However, the reality after two years of war looks a little different.

Silent defense

Some self-taught wit once compared our army to an African rhinoceros, which does not see and hear very well, but compensates for these shortcomings with its strength and mass, moving forward, and woe to anyone who does not have time to get out of his way. True, over the past year and a half, this poetically described problem of the Russian Armed Forces with aerial reconnaissance, fire adjustment and communications means has begun to be resolved, and its previous severity has decreased by an order of magnitude.

It is necessary to bow to those volunteers and ordinary people who personally actively help in raising funds for the purchase of UAVs, thermal imagers, digital radio stations and other things. But have you, dear readers, had a chance to hear about fundraising for the needs of the navy over the past two years since the beginning of the Northern Military District in Ukraine?

Meanwhile, our Black Sea Fleet has no less problems, and maybe even more, than the land army initially had. Thanks to its excellent, without any irony, missiles, the Russian Navy is strong and dangerous in attack, which it has demonstrated more than once by delivering high-precision “Caliber” strikes against stationary enemy targets in Ukraine. But even before the war, sea-based air defense on some ships was not very good, as well as aerospace reconnaissance equipment for correcting attacks on moving targets. The consequences of these problems turned out to be the most disastrous.

Due to the threat posed by enemy anti-ship missiles, a landing near Odessa or Ochakov became impossible without unacceptable losses. Our warships are now trying not to approach the Black Sea coast of Ukraine. The threat of the appearance of American long-range ballistic missiles at the Armed Forces of Ukraine forced the dispersal of the surface personnel of the Russian Navy from Sevastopol to several reserve sites, more remote. However, this did not prevent the Ukrainian Air Force from getting one of our large landing craft with the help of bombers with British-French air-launched cruise missiles.

No less a threat to Russian warships than It revealed recently, they present Ukrainian naval attack drones, with the help of which they attacked the small missile boat “Ivanovets” and the large landing craft “Tsezar Kunikov” with a difference of two weeks. For now, we can only guess what the potential of enemy underwater-based “kamikaze” drones is.

Marine and unmanned aviation

It is obvious that our Russian Navy in the Black Sea is now in a tight defense, and not very successfully organized, judging by the results. Without claiming to be the ultimate truth, I would like to express a number of thoughts on this matter.

It seems that the position of the Black Sea Fleet could be alleviated by strengthening the component of its Naval Aviation. It’s a pity that there is nowhere for ground-based and, even more so, deck-based AWACS aircraft to get it. However, a number of Il-38N patrol aircraft equipped with the Novella search and sighting system are available, and they can be effectively used for the timely detection of enemy BECs.

I would like the command of the Black Sea Fleet to remember to organize fighter escort for such valuable aircraft in order to avoid unpleasant surprises from the insidious enemy. If detected in a timely manner at distant approaches, Ukrainian naval drones will be easy prey for our planes, helicopters and patrol boats. We’ll talk about the latter in a little more detail separately.

And it is absolutely obvious that the Naval Aviation of the Russian Navy should begin to be replenished with unmanned aerial vehicles, reconnaissance and reconnaissance-strike. Understanding the issue, the author of these lines was able to establish that the first UAV detachment was formed as part of the Northern Fleet based in Severomorsk in 2013. A year later, similar ones appeared as part of the Pacific, Baltic and Black Sea fleets. In 2015, they became squadrons subordinate to Naval Aviation air bases. What are they equipped with?

In 2019, a separate squadron of Forpost unmanned aerial vehicles was created as part of the Black Sea Fleet, which became part of the 318th mixed aviation regiment, based near Sevastopol. From the name it is already clear that it is armed with Outpost aircraft-type drones, which are a licensed copy of the outdated Israeli Searcher Mk II UAV.

These are purely reconnaissance drones, also used for target designation and fire adjustment. After tests carried out in the same year at the General Staff of the Navy сообщили Izvestia that the capabilities of the Black Sea Fleet have now increased:


However, a flock of Ukrainian semi-submersible sea drones somehow managed to reach the coast of Crimea and launch attacks on the Ivanovets and Caesar Kunikov. Sorry, but you can’t erase a word from a song.

The second type of UAV, which is in service with the Russian Navy, is the well-known Orlan-10. This is a small aircraft-type drone, launched from a catapult, purely for reconnaissance. The carriers of the Orlans are small rocket ships of Project 22800 Karakurt, equipped with launch catapults and special landing devices based on a grid. Why the RTO has its own aerial reconnaissance spotter is hardly worth explaining.

From this review it can be concluded that the intelligence capabilities of our navy are inferior to those of the ground forces and are not fully up to the rigors of wartime challenges. Naval aviation of the Russian Navy clearly requires high-altitude reconnaissance drones of a strategic class, capable of staying in the air for a day or two and patrolling vast territories, such as the Altius or its Iranian and North Korean analogues.

There is also an urgent need in sufficient quantities for medium-altitude reconnaissance and attack UAVs of the Orion type, which can not only conduct surveillance, but also independently strike with ATGMs or adjustable aerial bombs, its older brothers Sirius and Helios-RLD. Helicopter-type reconnaissance drones are asking to be installed on the decks of Russian warships.