The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has unveiled two upgraded versions of its Sea Baby naval drones on Wednesday – one equipped with a machine gun turret, and another with Grad rocket launcher systems.
The SBU said the upgraded versions were used in the attack on Russia’s Kerch bridge on June 3 that targeted reinforced concrete pile bundles critical to its stability.
The SBU, in its press release, said the new versions – made possible by funding via the government’s UNITED24 fundraising platform – can now cover over 1,500 km (932 miles), carry up to 2,000 kg (4,410 lb) of cargo, with “reinforced engines and a modern navigation system.”
Some models – presumably different from the kamikaze sea drones used to strike the Kerch bridge – also come equipped with machine guns or Grad rocket launchers.
“The SBU development team demonstrated two drones with different weapons. The first is equipped with a gyro-stabilized machine gun mount, which has an auto-capture and target recognition system. The second carries heavy weapons: a 10-round Grad multiple launch rocket system,” the press release says.
The agency did not specify the model of machine guns used on the upgraded drones.
Reports of Grad rocket launchers mounted on Sea Babies came as early as May 2024, though they appeared to be largely experimental at the time.
The SBU hailed the weapons as the key to deterring Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, adding that drones have been able to “[force] Russia to relocate most of its military vessels to the Novorossiysk Bay and allowed it to unblock the ‘grain corridor.’”
“The SBU is the ideologist of a new type of naval warfare. We are constantly looking for effective means to maintain Ukraine’s superiority in the Black Sea for as long as possible. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s task is to neutralize the powerful Russian naval Black Sea fleet. We are actively working on this,” SBU Brigadier General Ivan Lukashevich was quoted as saying.
Ukraine has lost much of its naval assets when Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, prompting Kyiv to rely on unmanned systems to counter Russia’s Black Sea Fleet after the full-scale invasion broke out in 2022 – to great success.
In September, Ukraine launched a major attack on the Russian port city of Novorossiysk on Wednesday, Sept. 24, targeting the Black Sea Fleet with unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Lukashevich also confirmed that Sea Babies were used to target the structure of the Kerch Bridge, built by Moscow to transport materiel from mainland Russia to occupied Crimea, in June this year.