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Ukraine improves its autonomous maritime capability by upgrading its “Sea Baby” multi-purpose unmanned surface vehicle (USV), which is now primarily focused on providing security against Russian ships in the Black Sea and can carry more explosives for longer ranges.
Artem Dehtiarenko, a spokesman for the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said they upgraded the Sea Baby to carry over a ton of explosives across almost a thousand km (while it previously could only carry 800 kg for distances of up to 800 km).
According to Interesting Engineering, this upgrade allows it to attack anywhere in the Black Sea, as well as boosts its capability to sink “enemy warship worth several tens of millions of dollars,” said Dehtiarenko, adding that the USVs have already attacked 11 Russian ships.
Furthermore, a Ukrainian Navy spokesperson recently stated that Russia pulled its last Black Sea Fleet warship out of Crimea, and the reason could allegedly be the heavy use of aerial drones, sea drones, and anti-ship missiles by Ukraine on Russian ships.
Overall, Ukraine has proven itself a formidable opponent to Russia with the clever use of unmanned weapons and is developing low-cost robots for fighting and reconnaissance purposes. As we have previously reported, the Russia-Ukraine war has seen unprecedented use of drones, with both sides relying on many UAVs and ground drones for missions of reconnaissance, surveillance, and attack. This war proves drone warfare to be crucial, with both sides trying to gain the upper hand in customizing drones for various missions.
This past May, Ukraine became the first country to have a dedicated Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) military branch, and experts state that as the war is showing no signs of stopping or slowing down at the moment, they expect to see many more innovations from Ukrainian companies.
