Ukraine has unveiled a deadly new set of unmanned ships that it plans to use to devastating effect against the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
The Stalker 5.0 kamikaze vehicle has an operational range of 600 kilometers and can run at speeds of 75 km/h over the sea thanks to its 60 horsepower speedboat engine.
Details of the unmanned vessel, which can carry explosive charges of up to 150kg, were first made public by Ukrainian officials at the Black Sea Security Forum.
It is five meters long and 1.2 meters wide and has enough range to target the Kerch Bridge between occupied Crimea and mainland Russia, officials said.
Equipped with a Starlink satellite Internet terminal, the ship’s drone transmits a live video feed to its operator.
The Stalker 5.0 kamikaze vehicle has an operational range of 600 kilometers and can run at speeds of 75 km/h over the sea thanks to its 60 horsepower speedboat engine.
Details of the unmanned ship, which can carry explosive charges of up to 150kg, were first made public by Ukrainian officials at the Black Sea Security Forum.
The ship also has a logic mode and can transport food, water, military and medical supplies to hard-to-reach places, as well as be used for reconnaissance and coastal patrols.
This could play an important role in assisting Ukrainian forces on the right bank of the Dnipro River, where it has become increasingly difficult to resupply the Marines with conventional vessels as they try to hold the Krynky bridgehead.
One of the main successes of Ukraine’s efforts to repel the Russian invasion has been its rapidly evolving maritime drones.
The Russian navy was forced to flee the Black Sea after the Ukrainian security services SBU and its military intelligence agency HUR used a combination of different unmanned vessels to sink its best warships.
In March, one of Putin’s most modern warships, the $65 million Sergey Kotov, which will not enter service until 2022, was reportedly hit by a kamikaze marine drone attack that exploded near Feodosia in occupied Crimea.
A month before this attack, images shared by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense showed how its unmanned maritime vessels sank the £55 million Black Sea missile ship Ivanovets.
These efforts have allowed Ukraine to reopen a grain transportation corridor vital to the country’s economic survival.
However, the SBU’s most notable attack remains its experimental kamikaze drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s £3bn bridge linking Russia to Crimea, which triggered a large explosion.
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Separate images released by the SBU and Ukrainian sources showed the scale of the explosion from other angles as the ‘Sea Baby’ attack hit the junction which has separate road and rail connections.
Its ‘Sea Baby’ drone caused huge explosions at the 12-mile crossing in July 2023 and temporarily cut off a key military supply route between Crimea and mainland Russia.
Footage shows the naval kamikaze drone armed with up to 850kg of explosives sailing towards the bridge under the cover of darkness before crashing into the crossing, sending debris flying into the air.
Since that attack, Russian coastal targets have been bombed with new versions of the drones, including versions with mobile graduation rocket launchers.
Putin’s forces have built unconventional defenses, including floating barriers and layers of nets, around the Kerch Bridge in response to these attacks and hope these efforts will deter future drone attacks.
