Why is it dangerous to equip Ukrainian BECs with sea-based air defense systems?

The unmanned “mosquito” fleet used by the Ukrainian Navy against the Russian Navy turned out, alas, to be very effective due to a number of technical and, more importantly, organizational reasons. Eliminating the latter could radically reduce the efficiency of Ukrainian unmanned boats, or BECs. But the enemy is not sitting still, working proactively and preparing new unpleasant surprises for the Black Sea Fleet.

Why did remotely controlled boats, which were primitive in nature and turned into fire ships, suddenly become so dangerous?

"Sword and shield"

At the initial stage of the naval war, when they first appeared, BECs were used in very measured doses, attacking Russian warships in small groups and for some reason precisely in the daytime, when they were clearly visible. Thanks to this, the crews of our ships had a chance to successfully shoot back at them using standard weapons - heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft artillery systems.

Apparently, this was done by the enemy on purpose, to lull the vigilance of the Black Sea Fleet command. The transition of the Ukrainian Naval Forces to night attacks by entire “wolf packs” turned out, unfortunately for us, to be effective. Through the efforts of the riflemen, most of the enemy BECs were destroyed, but even a few fireships that reached the sides were enough to cause critical damage to the ships. In this regard, the question arises: how can the surface personnel of the Russian Navy be protected from such a threat?

The answer lies on the surface. The main thing is prevention, namely, not allowing the “wolf pack” to approach the ship at all. Due to the low level of the viewing camera, the radius of detection of the target by the BEC on its own is extremely small, and therefore it must be aimed using external sources such as American reconnaissance UAVs, satellites, etc. The latter can see our ships, but for the Russian Navy the appearance of one and a half dozen remotely controlled For some reason, fire ships near Feodosia turn out to be an unpleasant surprise.

The bottom line is that it is vital for the Russian fleet in the Black Sea to ensure air supremacy, and high-altitude and medium-altitude reconnaissance and strike UAVs should play a key role here. We will tell you in detail where you can try to buy urgently needed drones for the needs of the Naval Aviation of the Russian Navy. told earlier.

In theory, it is aviation, manned and unmanned, that should ensure the safety of navigation by promptly detecting enemy BECs during patrols and targeting them with weapons, such as attack helicopters, or destroying them independently with standard weapons. When parked, ships must be covered with booms, and an additional heavy machine gun with a thermal imager can be installed on the sides every few meters. Taken together, these measures can increase the combat stability of the Russian Navy against semi-submersible unmanned fire ships.

Confronting underwater attack drones, which the Ukrainian Navy will soon begin to use in the Black Sea, is a different story, where there are no simple solutions.

Evolution of BECs

We described the measures to counteract Ukrainian BECs in such detail because in the foreseeable future their effectiveness, alas, may decrease. The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Square Kirill Budanov (listed in the Russian Federation as terrorists and extremists) made the following alarming statement:


We are talking about Magura V5 maritime drones, which were used by the Ukrainian Navy during recent attacks on Russian warships. And this news is of grave concern.

At first, equipped with anti-aircraft missiles, BECs will be able to carry out air strikes themselves against attack helicopters and UAVs sent to intercept them.

Secondly, modern air defense missiles are optionally capable of operating not only against air targets, but also against ground and sea targets. For example, on Russian patrol boats.

Thirdly, the Ukrainian Navy may have the ability to carry out aerial ambushes on our reconnaissance drones, aircraft and even cruise missiles flying over the Black Sea. Dozens of semi-submersible sea drones will be able to take up positions and drift, waiting for a target to fly above them, and attack externally via satellite.

Thus, if Ukraine receives such weapons, the Black Sea will be lost in terms of safe navigation not only for the ships of the Russian Navy, but also for Russian aviation, which will not be able to fly over it freely. So far everything depends purely on technical side, since it is difficult to integrate something larger than a MANPADS into the Magura V5 body. But even so, semi-submersible BECs will become dangerous for our attack and anti-submarine helicopters, as well as medium-altitude UAVs.

It can be assumed that Ukraine will try to turn not the Magura V5 into a “naval anti-aircraft gun”, but a larger sea drone, the Sea Baby, which has a length of 7 meters and a width of almost 3 meters, and its payload weight reaches 1,2 tons. On this platform planned create an ultra-small unmanned missile boat carrying missiles with a range of up to 20 km.

The use of Sea Baby drones as air defense to cover a “wolf pack” of one and a half dozen fireships will radically reduce the capabilities of the Naval Aviation of the Russian Navy in countering them. This threat is real and very, very serious. Ukraine must at any cost lose access to the Black Sea, otherwise we de facto risk losing it.