Even if only one out of ten Ukrainian marine drones reaches the target, this is a very successful case, said one of the founders of the project of Ukrainian marine drones, a member of the UA Dynamics development team Maksym Subotin in an interview with Ukrainian Radio. The main task now is to scale up production.
“This is a phenomenal case that can turn the surface Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation to the underwater status,” Subotin said, commenting about the Ukrainian strikes which hit the Russian oil tanker SIG and military ship Olenegorskiy Gorniak. Such successful strikes are “absolutely wonderful for Ukraine” regarding the control over the Black, Subotin said.
He stressed that controlling the water area of the Black Sea is not only about controlling the water area. The supply of the Russian army in Crimea is carried out, in particular, through the supply of sea routes. When these convoys feel a constant threat, then Russian occupying forces will have to build other routes, which are not so convenient. They will also have to add to any cargo ship a convoy of warships to protect against a possible attack by sea drones from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Regarding constant Russian claims that they successfully repel Ukrainian drone attacks, Subotin said that it is calculated. Since Russian military ships constantly have crews on duty with ordinary machine guns as well as anti-aircraft guns, they can destroy part of the drones, even using anti-aircraft guns. However, if out of ten, for example, Magura V5 drones, only one reaches the target and destroys the Russian ship, it is still cost-effective.
“That is why we need more strike drones so that we can fight with robots and protect our human potential,” Subotin stressed.
He also said that earlier combat swimmers could conduct similar tasks as the destruction of Olenegorskiy Gorniak at bay. They could swim for a long time, tow a heavy load with an explosive device behind them and attach it magnetically below the waterline to some ship that was in a dock or on a raid. These are very complex operations carried out by the elite of the Armed Forces of any country.
“And if we can protect the lives of such professionals by using robots, then we should definitely do it,” he says.
Subotin works in the UA Dynamics development team, which specializes in constructing various types of strike drones. In particular, they have created the Punisher drone, which is presented as “the reusable strike drone with the cheapest mission cost in the world.”
