Crimea Under Threat As Russians Fret Over Ukraine's New 'Floating MLRS'

Russian military bloggers have expressed concerns over Ukraine's repurposed maritime drones fitted with multiple-launch rocket systems that have been touted by a leading analyst as being capable of reshaping naval warfare.

Footage published by Russian state news agency Tass earlier this month showed a Russian Ka-29 helicopter firing at a naval drone operated by the GUR, Ukraine's military intelligence agency, which appeared to be armed with R-73 air-to-air anti-aircraft missiles in the Black Sea. Separately, on Wednesday, a source with the SBU, Ukraine's state security service, told Newsweek that it had deployed modified Sea Baby drones against Moscow's forces in the war.

Ukraine has used its attack marine drones on multiple occasions to target Russia's Black Sea Fleet as part of its ongoing efforts to reclaim the Black Sea peninsula, which was annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014.

Prominent pro-Kremlin pro-war military bloggers have taken to Telegram to weigh in on the newly modified drones, with one saying that Russia must "look for ways to counter it (and introduce similar weapons) now."

"The accuracy of these, of course, is lame, as in the case of anti-aircraft missiles, but now this is no longer just a kamikaze drone, but a completely combat-ready unit capable of creating some kind of problems in the already troubled Black Sea," the Rybar channel said.

"You can say a lot 'yes, they are useless, the accuracy is useless, there is zero benefit,' but the important thing is that the development of this area is progressing by leaps and bounds. And technology will continue to get better, but we need to look for ways to counter it (and introduce similar weapons) now," the military blogger wrote.

Telegram channel Military Informant shared footage which it said showed Ukraine using the repurposed naval drones, calling them "floating MLRS [multiple rocket launchers]." Newsweek has not been able to independently verify the footage.

Pro-war military blogger Poddubny said equipping drones with this type of weapon "will allow the enemy not to get close to the intended target, but to strike from a certain distance."

H.I. Sutton, an open-source maritime security analyst, said in an analysis for Naval News, a specialist publication focusing on maritime affairs, that Ukraine's naval drones were essentially defenseless against Russian helicopters armed with machine guns. "Now a version armed with two repurposed air-air missiles could change the tide again," he said.

The naval analyst touted the repurposed drones as marking a "really significant step in the development of naval drones."

"#Ukraine first to put air-defense missiles on them, attacking #Russian helicopters in Black Sea. The idea is viable and it will likely reshape naval warfare," he said on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday.

Sutton said that in practice, this is the first such air-defense naval drone (USV) in the world.

"Other country's manufacturers have explored giving USVs some form of air defense. But this system is the first fielded operationally, and indeed, the first in combat," he said.

The modification "opens the possibility of using them to ambush Russian aircraft as they take-off or land on Crimean air bases," said Sutton.

"The USVs can sit off the Crimean coast and pick off the aircraft as they approach unawares. There is at least circumstantial evidence to suggest that this may have already been done," he added.

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