Kyiv: Ukraine’s state security service has unveiled an upgraded sea drone it says can now operate anywhere in the Black Sea, carry heavier weapons and use artificial intelligence for targeting.
Ukraine has used the unmanned naval drones to target Russian shipping and infrastructure in the Black Sea. The Security Service of Ukraine, known by its Ukrainian acronym SBU, has credited strikes by the unmanned vessel known as the “ Sea Baby” with forcing a strategic shift in Russia’s naval operations.
The range of the Sea Baby was expanded from 1,000 km to 1,500 km, SBU said. It can carry up to 2,000 kg of payload, SBU officials said.
At a demonstration attended by The Associated Press, variants included vessels fitted with a multiple-rocket launcher and another with a stabilised machine-gun turret. SBU Brig Gen Ivan Lukashevych said the new vessels also feature AI-assisted friend-or-foe targeting systems and can launch small aerial attack drones and multilayered self-destruct systems to prevent capture.
Drone strikes have been used in successful attacks against 11 Russian vessels, including frigates and missile carriers, SBU said, prompting the Russian navy to relocate its main base from Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk on Russia’s Black Sea coast.