Four ships in a row: Defence Intelligence explains why Ukrainian drones started sinking Russian vessels – video

The Magura V5 Ukrainian uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) are successfully destroying Russian ships by acting in groups and being controlled by skilled operators.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda article Find and Sink. How Budanov's Magura drones destroy Russian vessels (English translation to follow shortly)

Details: As is stated in the article, on the night of 9-10 November 2023, it was time for the Magura drones to shine for the first time when they did what they had been designed for. A group of Magura drones detected and struck two high-speed landing ships of the Russians, Serna and Akula ("Shark"), in the sea near the village of Chornomorske not far from the Crimean coast.

The next two missions of these drones revealed their potential even more. On 1 February 2024, the missile-armed corvette Ivanovets was struck, on 14 February – landing ship Tsezar Kunikov.

These four vessels of the Black Sea Fleet of the Armed Forces of Russia which were not simply damaged, but completely sunk.

Quote by one of Magura developers: "Previously, the number of drones was smaller, and the main task was simply to hit a warship, but now they operate in groups of more than five. This allows us to distribute roles in the group, determine the order of attack, etc.

The main objective of the first phase is to immobilise the target, so the initial strike is usually on the engines. In the second phase, the strikes are aimed at the most vulnerable part of the ship. They are determined in advance when studying the target during mission planning. If we manage to create a breach, the next strikes are aimed at the same spot."

Details: The Magura V5 drone is quite expensive. Nobody reveals the exact price but it is certain that each unit costs millions of hryvnias [or hundreds of thousands of dollars – ed.]. The drone is so costly that even Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, who often performs missions together with his soldiers, has not even once given in to the temptation to use one himself.

Magura was designed to be a true hunter. The manufacturers explained that this model was created specifically to "hunt" warships in the sea so it is smaller, faster and much more capable of manoeuvring than other similar drones.

Asked what helped to switch from just damaging Russian ships to an almost guaranteed sinking, Budanov replied:

"You see, the technologies are developing, the operators are becoming more skilled. I would say that it only depends on our technologies and skills. But sometimes the factor of skillfulness of the crew of the ship we target also comes into play. Sometimes luck is also a factor. Yes, sometimes we just get lucky, but only those of us who are trained well."

Budanov explains that it is important to be able to quickly adapt to changes and make decisions on the spot.

"The most important thing here is to allow the operators to act according to the plan. When something does not go according to the plan we should quickly decide what and how we will do next. For instance, the Tsezar Kunikov was not initially the main target. But the conditions of attacking the main target changed during the mission," explains the head of the Defence Intelligence Department for Uncrewed Vessels, a general with an alias Borets ("Fighter").

He added that the Magura drones were hunting a group target but a few hours before the drones were supposed to approach the ship, the vessels started moving, and the main target could not be struck. So they decided to "hunt" the Tsezar Kunikov ship.

Read more about how the Magura surface drones appeared, the Russian targets they have captured, and Ukrainian Defence Intelligence’s competition with the Security Service of Ukraine in the Ukrainska Pravda article (English translation to follow shortly).

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