The military issues website Breaking Defense reported on the Special Operations Forces (SOF) conference that was held in Tampa, Florida in the week May 5-8, with one subject discussed among attendees being the innovative use of unmanned surface vessels (USV – sea drones) by Ukraine’s Armed Forces (AFU).
The reports that a Ukrainian Magura-7 USVs firing the US-made AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile had brought down two Russian Sukhoi Su-30 fighter aircraft over the Black Sea overnight on May 2/3 were in the forefront of several SOF minds.
The publication cited a US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) official who categorized this and other innovative deployments by Kyiv of USVs as ‘marsupial’ concepts that were of definite interest, although there has yet to be any formal request for such a system.
A marsupial is a mammal that carries its young in a pouch. The term is shorthand used by US SOF operators to refer to any “thinking outside the box” combination of weapons systems such as the Magura/AIM-9 hybrid
Breaking Defense cites a number of USSOCOM representatives who spoke on the prospect of more ‘marsupial’ combos. One, from its Program Executive Office-Maritime (PEO-M) said there was interest in investigating possible roles for USVs carrying a range of kinetic and non-kinetic weaponry.
The PEO-M was currently working on a program called the Maritime Precision Engagement (MPE) concept to launch drones from manned combat vessels but an unnamed source said the Ukrainian concept was definitely worthy of further exploration.
The official said, “There are so many different options out there and over the last couple of years through various different programs, we’ve built building blocks of little capabilities. I think what we’re going to do over the next couple of years is probably combine them, whether its MPE or whether its other ways to launch UAVs.”
He added that as there are no off the shelf systems “… we are going to look how to combine these capabilities and ‘Frankenstein’ these things… we also have to figure out the most cost-effective ways of building these things.”
Capt. Jared Wyrick, the PEO-M program manager said they could only respond to specific requests from US “warfighters” for such capabilities but said its main customer the Naval Special Warfare Command (NSW – WARCOM), were “… in daily communication with the Ukrainian effort to track what’s going on there.”
In its formal presentation at the conference PEO-M said it was intending to purchase several off-the-shelf USVs which would incorporate “SOF peculiar modifications” and that would then operate alongside other NSW seaborne platforms.
An SOF expo attached to the conference saw a range of USVs of different shapes and sizes displayed on the waterfront of the Tampa Convention Center. This included some that worked in semi-submersible “Gator mode” that reduces their above surface visual and radar signature and others that could launch surveillance and attack drones, torpedoes, mines and surface-to-surface missiles (SSM).
It seems that in its war against Russia’s illegal invasion Ukraine has opened yet another “Pandora’s box” for possible future warfighting technology and operations.