JOHN GRADY
A frenzy of Ukrainian-designed and –built high-speed, bomb-laden Magura V5 unmanned surface drones added an explosive exclamation point to the widespread frustrations in and with Russia’s Black Sea Fleet when they sank Caesar Kunikov, a landing ship most likely carrying needed ammunition to the southern fight earlier this year.
As many as 10 Magura V5s participated in the night-time 20-minute sea-fight off the southern tip of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. During the March attack, two drones carrying at least 400 pounds of explosives each were maneuvered to hit and sink the landing ship transport, which usually carries a crew of 60. The Russians are reported to have destroyed four of the attackers.
The 18-foot-long Maguras are routinely described as a couple of jet skies loaded with explosives. But unmanned aerial and maritime systems’ successes in destroying high-value targets at low-cost to their operators are changing the character of naval warfare.
Leo Daugherty, historian with the Army’s Cadet Command Fort Knox, Ky., told USNI News that the February sinking and others that followed meant Moscow has lost about one-third of its fleet in the Black Sea since the war began in February 2022. Before the invasion, it numbered 40 surface warships (from combatants such as cruisers to corvettes to mine warfare vessels and auxiliaries) and seven submarines.
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