Ukraine uses inexpensive sea drones to attack Russian ships
A Ukrainian sea-drone operator shared his experience of taking out a Russian ship with a waterborne drone in an interview with The New York Times.
The operator asked to only be identified by a nickname, "Thirteen."
He insisted, too, on other security measures like wearing a ski mask for the interview, the Times reported.
In his interview, Thirteen argued that sea drones were a new frontier of warfare that are transforming naval warfare — with Ukraine in the vanguard.
Thirteen and his fellow described piloting a swarm of drones towards the Russian ship, the Sergey Kotov corvette, in September.
He said that his drone came under fire, causing it to explode early. But it was still close enough for the explosion to damage the Sergey Kotov, making the mission a success.
"When we hit the target, the whole team, of course, was filled with emotion," Thirteen said.
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"These weapons are extremely effective," he said. "If we just imagine roughly what it costs to build ships like the Kotov and to train the crews — it takes years to build and crew ships like that. Even if we count all the drones used in an attack on one, they are thousands of times cheaper."
In the NYT interview, Thirteen said there are "no instructors, no textbooks" when it comes to using the drones. "We are writing these books now," he said.
The Ukrainian sea-drone operators carried out the attack with Playstation-like consoles from hundreds of miles away from Ukraine's coast, per the newspaper.
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The sea drones are a significant innovation that navies around the world will have to learn to deal with. They are a less expensive way of taking out a ship and they do not need a crew on board to accomplish their mission. I have not seen any indication so far that the US is ready to implement sea drones.
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