“Important for naval warfare”
London sees sea drones as a threat to Russia
08/09/2023, 1:35 p.m
Recently, Ukrainian sea drone attacks on Russian ships have increased. Some are badly damaged. According to British intelligence, this shows how important unmanned watercraft are to modern naval warfare.
According to British assessments, Ukrainian sea drones remain a threat to Russia. In its daily update, the British Ministry of Defense looked at the attacks against the Russian tanker “SIG” and the landing ship “Olenegorski Gornjak” in early August. Both ships are said to have been damaged.
The British wrote on Twitter that an attack on Russian patrol boats, which were probably escorting the Russian merchant ship “Sparta IV”, had apparently also been foiled beforehand. Although the ships are flying civil flags, the “Sparta IV” and the “SIG” have long been tasked with transporting fuel and military goods between Russia and Syria, it said. Since Russian military ships have been unable to transit the Bosphorus since February 28, 2022, Russian forces in Syria and the Mediterranean are dependent on the SIG, the Sparta IV and a handful of other civilian ships.
“The attacks show that UAV operations are fast becoming an important part of modern naval warfare and can be deployed against vulnerabilities in Russia’s sea supply routes,” the ministry wrote in London.