Key Points and Summary – Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service has unveiled a significantly upgraded “Sea Baby” naval drone, transforming it from a “suicide” craft into a multi-purpose weapons platform.
-The new version boasts an extended 930-mile range, a massive 4,400-pound payload, and AI-assisted targeting with friend-or-foe identification.
MiG-31 Russian Air Force. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-New variants were shown armed with rocket launchers and stabilized machine-gun turrets, allowing them to attack from a distance.
-These innovations are part of Ukraine’s pioneering naval drone warfare, which has already forced the Russian fleet to retreat from Crimea after successful attacks on 11 Russian warships.
Ukraine Just Unveiled Its New ‘Sea Baby’ Drone, and It Now Has Rockets
WARSAW, POLAND – The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has unveiled an upgraded version of one of its previous model sea drones.
The new model, says the service, has the range/payload capacity to operate anywhere in the Black Sea, it can now carry heavier weapons and make use of artificial intelligence (AI) for targeting purposes.
SBU Brigadier General Ivan Lukashevych has explained that the AI-assisted targeting of this new drone design also has friend-or-foe detection technology.
This larger drone can also launch small aerial attack drones.
It is also equipped with what are being described as multilayered self-destruct systems to prevent capture and it being dissected and examined by the Russians.
The range of the Sea Baby has been extended from 620 miles to 930 miles, stated an SBU specialist. It can also carry an enlarged payload of up to 4,400 pounds.
To demonstrate its performance and the different configurations in which it is built, the Ukrainian intelligence and special operations service held a demonstration of the system for Western media.
Authorities asked that the time and location of the demonstration not be made public for security reasons.
The different variants showcased included one model equipped with a multiple-rocket launcher.
Another model features a stabilized machine-gun turret that corrects the gun’s fire to compensate for the motion of the sea surface.
Throughout the almost four-year war, Ukraine has used unmanned naval drones to extensively target Russia’s shipping and other maritime force facilities in the Black Sea.
The SBU states that these strikes by this new unmanned vehicle, which is known as the “Sea Baby” have caused the Russian Navy to make a strategic change of course in how it conducts its operations.
Ukraine’s Naval Warfare With No Warships
The Ukrainian forces have used drone strikes in successful attacks against 11 Russian naval vessels, including frigates and missile carriers, according to the SBU.
Kirov-Class from the Russian Navy. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The unrelenting attacks eventually forced the Russian navy to decamp from their main base in Sevastopol in Crimea to a facility at Novorossiysk on Russia’s Black Sea east coast.
“The SBU became the first in the world to pioneer this new kind of naval warfare — and we continue to advance it,” Lukashevych said. He explained that the ability of the SBU to conduct increasing different modes of attacks has been significantly facilitated by the many modifications and variants of the Sea Baby.
In the process, the Sea Baby has evolved from a single-use, one-way suicide strike craft into a multi-use, multipurpose platform.
It has been one of the chief weapons, creating an ever-growing list of naval warfare scenarios that expand Ukraine’s offensive options.
This evolution from an expendable, one-use, suicide strike boat to a reusable, networked drone is an important, game-changing innovation in asymmetric naval warfare, Lukashevych said.
“On this new product, we have installed rocket weaponry that will allow us to work from a large distance outside of the attack range of enemy fire. We can use such platforms to carry heavy weaponry,” he said. “Here we can show Ukrainians the most effective use of the money they have donated to us.”
The Sea Baby craft is operated remotely from a mobile control center inside a van. Operators sit behind a bank of screens and remote control modules.
“Cohesion of the crew members is probably the most important thing. We are constantly working on that,” said one of the Sea Baby operators who would only identify himself by his call sign, “Scout.” Ukrainian military security parameters are specific, and there are stringent guidelines to ensure that their drone operators are not targeted.
Bridge-Busting and Private Donors
Sea drones have not only been used to drive the Russian Navy from the Black Sea, but they have also carried out some high-profile – and at times morale-boosting – attacks. The top priority of those targets is the infamous Kerch Strait (also known as the Crimean Bridge) that has been hit in repeated attacks.
The latest attacks have damaged the bridge’s underwater supports, aiming to create enough structural instability to render the bridge unusable for heavy military transport.
Currently, the Sea Baby program is partially funded by public donations that are spearheaded by a state-run initiative.
The fundraising is also handled in coordination with Ukraine’s military and political leadership.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of the Asia Research Centre at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
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