Ukraine's Sea Drones are Getting Crazy

when it comes to the pace of innovation nothing is quite as valuable a motivator as war from Engineers to financiers from garage innovators to governments and from Big Tech to business war is by far the most motivator that Humanity has found in order to Pony up some cash and make some technological magic happen perhaps it's the stakes that come with an enemy figuring out a new technology before you do maybe it's a vast military-industrial complex playing on the fears of a government and its people or maybe it's a testament to Humanity's immense capacity to P all under pressure but the results are undeniable when in early 2022 Columns of Russian tanks and soldiers streamed on mass into Ukraine no amount of desperate Innovation was expected to stand against the coming Onslaught yet out of the crucible that is the Russia Ukrainian War Ukrainian inventors and builders on the home front have produced a piece of tech that's proven nothing short of an equalizer in the realm where the nation was expected to be the most horribly outmatched the technology in question is the SE drone properly known as either the unman surface vehicle or us V or the unmanned underwater vehicle or uuv and Ukraine isn't just Channing out carbon copies of the same single sea drone they've instead created a whole mass of them and some of them are getting pretty [Music] wild no discussion of Ukraine's crazy sea drones is complete without having the answer to one basic question why does Ukraine need Maritime drones in the first place the reason for Ukraine Sergeant need traces back to Russia's consider able Naval power and specifically the extreme disparity between the assets that Russia could leverage on the water and what Ukraine had in its Arsenal although we've been known to Lampoon Russia's rather silly Admiral kazet of aircraft carrier on the mega projects Channel check it out if you want to the reality of Russian naval power is a bit more nuanced than that although the aircraft carrier really isn't modern day Russia's Naval Forte the country still leverages a range of very scary destroyers Cruisers and frigs along with large Landing ships and ballistic missile cruise missile and nuclear attack submarines Ukraine by contrast had a few ping Patrol boats and other rather inconsequential vessels at the start of the war most of which were the scuttled captured or moved far away from Russian forces in an attempt not to see them blown up say whatever else you want about Russia's bumbling offensive on land but very early into the conflict Moscow had won its war in the Black Sea or at least that's what the world had presumed until the 29th of October 2022 when the Russian occup creian Port City of Sasol weathered an attack unlike any other in history on that day seven small Maritime drones each about the size of a paddled canoe or kayak dodged and weaved across sevastopol's Naval Harbor as a group of aerial drones ran overhead the SE drones operated in coordination with each other sitting barely above the surface of the water and closing in on their targets until eventually they made contact with at least two ships a m sweeper vessel and a frig that was serving as the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet after its prior Flagship the mosa had been sunk by an anti- ship missile strike in April of that same year in terms of its tangible impact on the target ships the Ukrainian sea drone attack was largely inconsequential neither ship weathered much damage and the Black Sea Flag ship the Admiral makov was able to return to its duties a few months later but it was the first time that Any Nation or military force had taken the idea of an unmanned Naval vessel the concept that's been around since the fire ships of old and began to integrate sea drones into a coordinated attack packed with explosives painted black and sitting low in the water and probably using Starling internet communications technology the drones had formed a small swarm scoring hits and causing damage against vessels that were in Friendly ports and thought to be capable of self-defense against far more intimidating adversaries not only that but they' done it at a tiny fraction of the cost Russia had expended on warships that were now rendered vulnerable and forced to either stay under lock and key in Friendly ports or risk complete destruction against a sea drone swarm on the high seas the Drone that was utilized in the saster attack in October of 2022 would later be revealed to the world under the name mola measuring a full length of 5 1 half merss but sitting low and shallow in the water the mola is typically painted black in order to blend in with the waves during night attacks comprising a hull a motor and a Trimm down top compartment the micola is obviously meant to be a fast boat and it serves capably as such hitting maximum speeds of up to 43 knots or 80 km an hour according to Naval expert HR Satan Satan's work on cataloging Ukraine's Maritime drones by the way was absolutely indispensable in us making this video so thank you to him the mola is able to carry up to 200 kg of explosives enough to punch a clean hole through the holes of smaller vessels and they can travel for a range of up to 800 km or 430 nautical miles they're able to work autonomously for up to 60 hours and stream encrypted HD video on up to three streams providing a firstperson perspective to their remote operates during an attack because of its long range long endurance and Sleek nearly invisible profile when sitting low in the water the mola is ideal for surface attacks getting to within a few nautical miles from a given Target by Sundown puttering at a slow speed with no wake and little noise and then roaring to life in coordinated swarms with just enough space to reach maximum speed before smashing into their targets but although the mola line of SE drones have become the thing people tend to picture when thinking about Ukrainian usvs the past few years of Warfare have revealed that the mola was just phase one and it's not even Ukraine's primary weapon on the high seas anymore instead that honor goes to the mura a series of slightly larger vessels that can do just a bit more than the mola can measuring 5 1 half M long but sitting just half a meter above the water line the mura is able to hit a maximum speed of 42 knots and a range of 450 nautical miles or a bit over 800 km slightly better than the mola but not necessarily the sort of thing thing where Ukraine would need a whole new model until we get to its two major improvements on its predecessor the first is its payload while the mola could carry a respectable 200 kg of explosives the mura brings to Bear 320 kg even more important it's made out of plastic making it nearly invisible to radar according to Ukraine the mura integrates an autopilot system night vision subsystems and on onboard data Hub but it still costs a price considerably under $300,000 just 2500th of what it cost Russia to build the mosque for warship that's now projecting Russian power against some crabs at the bottom of the Black Sea as for how many muras it would have taken to sink a mosa sized ship it's hard to say but we'd be willing to bet that the number is a lot closer to one than it is to 2500 making the Drone exceptionally costeffective for the battles it's intended to win then there's Ukraine's unmanned underwater vehicles or uuvs of which the first indigenously designed craft revealed to the global public was the tooa tlk1 150 built at a whole length of 2.5 M the original version of the DEA is shaped like a torpedo capable of operating at a range of 100 km and steering through the water using its horizontal stabilizers and thrusters agile but relatively slow the taka's communications Mast is the only element of the vessel to poke out out of the water making it exceptionally hard to spot amongst the waves while it's skinny and tapered front profile make it hard to detect or shoot underneath the water line future versions of the tacola are expected to boast an operational range of up to 1,200 km bringing the entire eastwest extent of the Black Sea well into its range but while the toola may not be capable of much when it comes to speed another Ukrainian USB has got that area handled and that would be the Mami unveiled near the end of 2023 after having been proven in multiple prior attacks against Russian vessels far from Ukraine's territory on land equipped with a planing Hall the Mami is purportedly able to Rocket itself across the waves at up to 60 knots or 110 km per hour fitted with an electrooptical camera ball and multiple satellite antenna the Mami is compact but Rises higher out of the water than Ukraine's other sea drones likely granting itself a fuel load that would result in a very respectable range while the drone's explosive payload capacity is currently unknown it's marketed by Ukraine's war crowdfunding platform United 24 is quote the fastest object in the Black Sea per United 24 the thing is even bulletproof which alongside its speed granted a level of resiliency and evasion that's compensating for its decidedly un stealthy profile after the Mami we start to get into the really crazy stuff though made the caby which despite its rather adorable name has proven itself to be the baby from hell where russer is concerned coming into a length of 6 M and sitting just 6 m above the water line when it's moving slowly or at rest it's capable of hitting speeds of up to 49 knots and with additional fuel on board it can travel for up to 1,000 km but its payload is the especially impressive thing about the caab for two key reasons on the one hand or when it's being used as a camicazi drone like the others we've talked about thus far the seab baby can carry up to 850 kg of explosives more than four of the early stage Maka drones that we talked about previously even better the cab baby is equipped with weapons Beyond just the bomb carried in its own hole this particular drone is shown up to equipped with RP V60 and thermobaric Rockets including up to six rocket tubes each rocket is able to fly about a kilometer and can either be used to attack a Target defend the Drone against threats or to distract occupy or suppress defensive measures as the seab baby internal explosives get close enough to do the real work in addition to missiles the cbab has even been fitted out with guided missile launchers and a success craft the improved cabbab or AV Diva can travel at an even longer range while relying on a better motor the latest edition of the cabbab line the cabbab 20124 boasts increased maneuverability and can carry up to 2200b or 1,000 kilog of explosives all for a total cost of about2 200,000 per vessel and that's not all that Ukraine's sea drone industry can bring to bear in 2024 Ukraine USV has been spotted carrying the Franken samon improvised air defense system that allows the Drone boats to carry two anti-air Archer missiles in order to ward off Russian helicopter Pilots up to 9 mil or 15 km away a drone boat that washed up in Romania was observed to have been constructed from an americanmade rigid H inflatable boat carrying a missile taken from a sticks anti-ip missile and the riverine a 1.5 M long lowline craft is a resupply and logistical sea drone that's capable of sneaking through hard to penetrate water Waters either at sea or Inland varying up to a 30 km payload to land operations units or small man vessels at sea for minimal cost and minimal effort finally there's the maica a large unmanned underwater vessel that's thought to be the first uuv ever created specifically based on the needs of a wartime environment 6 M long and 1 m in diameter the maica looks almost like a big torpedo made out of metal with a hole that appears to be able to withstand crushing pressures in the depths of the Black Sea built at a reported cost of under half a million the maica is advertised by the group producing it ammo Ukraine as an anti- ship anti-submarine intelligence gathering transport and notably anti-bd weapon able to operate at a range of a th000 km per Amo Ukraine it can be concealed from hydroacoustic scanners underwater it's resilient against electronic warfare counter measures and it's able to go dormant while waiting for Activation either by signal or by timer optimized impact ships under the water line the maa's payload is currently unknown but judging by its size it's likely able to rip massive holes into most of the ships of Russia's Black Sea Fleet and potentially even sink them in one hit by now I should be abundantly clear that Ukraine's Fleet of sea drones isn't like anything the world has ever seen while we certainly can't account for the hardware that Global militaries are developing under classified or secret programs Ukraine is at present the only nation in the world to have combat tested the coordinated use of modern sea drones at large scale with any new technology in Warfare however just producing the technology only means so much it's got to be tested out and where Ukraine's Maritime drones are concerned the results have been stunning we've already told the story of how Ukraine introduced its sea drones to the world with its first attack in sevastopol in late October 2022 but since that time the nation and its robot watercraft have proven that their success was anything but a fluke a particularly notable Victory came on August the 4th 2023 when a 4,100 Landing ship called the olori gorac came under attack from what appeared to be a single Ukrainian sea drone loaded with 450 kilograms of high explosives the SE drone was able to make it not just to Russia controlled Crimea but well past that to the Russian city of novaris nearly 600 km or 370 mi from the Ukrainian Port City of adessa piloted by a Ukrainian operator sitting in the safety of their own Nation the sea drone was able to close rapidly on the landing ship severely damaging it in a way that Ukraine claimed took it out of action immediately the Drone employed in the attack is thought to have been the Mami the plastic hold radar low observable 60 not capable bulletproof sea drone that had only been revealed to the public a week prior at the time the sheer amount of explosives that the Mami carried stunned Global analysts who contrasted it against the small payload aerial drones that were showing up in force on both sides of the war and just before the Mami made its Grand introduction to the world Ukraine's intelligence service used the sea baby at that time another newly revealed Maritime drone to conduct one of a series of attacks on the Kirch straight Bridge a hated symbol within Ukraine the Kirch Bridge connects occupied Crimea directly to Russian territory by Road and Rail and it's been a top Target for Ukraine both for strategic and symbolic reasons in July of 2023 a pair of Sea Babies attacked the bridge by surprise each carrying nearly double the explosive payload that the Mami drone had used to bring down the landing ship a few weeks later that payload by the way came out to 850 kg of explosives per drone or 1,700 kg in total the hits were nearly enough to bring the entire Bridge down but they were nonetheless a tangible blow to Russia in a symbolic sense and the explosions were large enough to kill two civilians traveling the bridge a couple from Russia's belgaro region who were traveling with their teenage daughter to go vacationing alongside the two civilians dead and their daughter wounded video indicated the part of the kch strait Bridge's Road components had been sheared off toward the end of 2023 KV was even able to score a double kill with its SE drones and a pair of attacks against Landing ships and port on the creman peninsula footage of the Attack released by Ukraine clearly shows an attack by at least three sea drones a minimum of two of which impacted their intended targets although it was a relatively small attack it was able to have a Major Impact satellite imagery shared by Ukraine after the incident indicated that both Landing vessels had sunk by the time the satellite imagery was taken one of the landing craft was a s class vessel crewed by a complement of five and able to carry a main battle tanker up to 92 troops while the other was an artra class vessel crewed by five and able to carry a tank or 22 troops a class ship is believed to cost approximately $77 million today while the onat class is an older vessel but still fetches a price close to a million a half us both of these destroyed by drones with a likely combined cost of half a million dollar or less in 2024 news of Ukraine's sea drone exploits has kept on coming and nowadays news of a successful drone attack is often followed closely by details on a new tactic or approach that Ukraine has deployed for the first time in history one such incident went down in early March when a pack of caby drones the 18t long 850 kg payload 49 knot and potentially even rocket equipped Advanced weapons set up a missile Corvette in the Black Sea called the Sergey kotov a 1700 ton vessel the Sergey kotov is a well-armed ship traveling with 80 crew on board and potentially even carrying an armed helicopter but during a night attack the satellite controlled wolf pack of seab babies which by the way is an incredible sentence without context closed in and launched a coordinated attack against the Sergey kov during the attack video footage indicates that the seab babies split into two teams with the first team coming in behind the Sergey kotov chasing it and drawing its far then the second team attacked the Sergey kav's unprotected port side but not in an effort to actually do damage instead they herded the Sergey kov away from land and into Open Water where a third pack of Sea Babies lay in weight and it's these ones that finally scored their hits on the ship sinking it according to Ukrainian intelligence it was an especially damaging loss for Russia because of just how modern the Sergey kov apparently was it had steamed out of port for the first time in just 2021 a relatively rare feature among the vessels of Russians naal Arsenal the Sergey kov wasn't the only ship to go down in that fashion this year a second raade also conducted by cabbab drones took place on the night of February the 14th against a Russian Landing ship called the Caesar kunov that's a ship with a crew of 98 with the capacity to carry up to 10 main battle tanks plus 340 troops although it's unknown whether the Sergey COV was carrying Russian soldiers while it was on the water that vessel a far heavier one at 4100 tons was set upon by a pack of 10 drones across a 20-minute battle after four drones went down against the ship's defenses the fifth sixth seventh eth and Ninth all rammed into the hull with the ninth even able to drive partway through the hole that had been created for it and detonate nearly entirely inside the vessel the final C drone watched the whole attack and streamed back video eventually making an unsuccessful attack run on the Tog booat that came out to save the Caesar kunov the ship has since been confirmed sunk according to both Russian and Ukrainian sources other Russian ships have been sunk by sea drones this year including the missile Corvette Ivanov vet and although it's as yet unconfirmed rumors have spread across the open source intelligence space that a Ukrainian Maritime drone armed with anti-air missiles might even have ambushed piloted military planes and shot them down as they took off from Crimea if true that very well could be the first sea drone kill against an armed airplane in history with regards to the ivanets a Ukrainian sea drone operations Commander claims that just the cost of that one sunk ship would have cost Russia more than Ukraine spent building every drone It produced in the 14 months prior to that attack through all of Ukraine's successes at Sea it's important to emphasize that these combat drones are not achieving anywhere near a 100% kill rate the reason why Global analysts find Ukraine's sea drones to be so incredibly effective don't actually have much to do with Notions that they're unbeatable Fighting Machines instead their true value comes in the fact that even when they miss even when they're shot at and blown up on route to a Target even when they wait at Sea until their fuel runs out and they sink below the waves Ukraine can lose a whole lot of them and still spend far less money syncing Russian ships than Russia spent to build and maintain them in a war where Russia leverages a far more formidable economy and a far greater capacity for large- scale construction projects especially in the naval sphere this is how a smaller Nation like Ukraine can best level the playing field when a Ukrainian sea drone sinks a Russian vessel it's not just eliminating a ship for Russia to far missiles or heavy guns and it's not just killing dozens or even hundreds of Russian Sailors it's converting massive Russian expenditures into Twisted mangled pieces of metal on the seaf Flor sinking those ships far faster and far easier than Russia could ever hope to replace them by now it should be transparently obvious that Ukraine's drones offer at a bare minimum a sort of technology that will be useful for the nation over the course of its war with Russia try as Moscow might it can't seem to achieve total enough control over the Waters of the Black Sea that Ukraine could be prevented from Landing hits and every time a hit does land Ukraine's defense secures a massive Victory but just as important as what Ukraine is doing with their drones on the battlefield is what Ukraine is doing behind the scenes and it's here that we've got to talk about production and rest assured it is exceptionally important that we do from the very beginning Ukraine's Maritime drones have stood out for more than just their tactical value and their pioneering Feats they're also exceptional because of just how easy they are to build not just on the cheap but with equipment and tools that any person can access without proper warehouses or assembly lines devoted to the work Maritime drone production has turned into a garage industry for Ukraine often quite literally using commercially available parts from small watercraft and jet skis offthe shelf logic boards and antennas and even the sorts of virtual reality headsets that you'd buy a local Walmart their parts can be 3D printed on Mass using commercially available printers and material and modern digital design tools are more than equipped to help the most Visionary of Ukraine's Engineers create new takes on the SE drone and in this particular case the phrase garage industry is a literal one with Russia likely to Target any location it identifies as a SE drone production facility the initiative has been decentralized and distributed around well- defended parts of Ukraine from homeowners garages to auto parts and machining facilities to basement and more often they're run by people with expertise and only a subset of the the skills it takes to organize the sort of operation training themselves on the Fly and learning as they go they're hidden from view they utilize hundreds of Master craftsmen who constantly train apprentices in their own workshops and because the parts for these Maritime drones are so cheap to buy and assemble they're one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways for fellow ukrainians or even foreigners to send tangible individual support for the war effort in terms of the Innovation required to assemble such devices the initial seed of a maritime drone concept is not likely to have been indigenous to Ukraine in fact Ukraine is known to have received at least some sort of unmanned of coastal defense vessel from the United States as far back as April 2022 as part of a Security package compiled and sent off at that time to Aid the war effort as the world has since seen with a number of other new war Fighting Tools especially from the US and Europe a few se drones were likely provided to Ukraine for replication in the hopes that the war could provide a re life test on emerging technology but between Ukraine's desperate need for any set of tools that could help it survive against Russia and the way in which a decentralized garage industry of highly motivated Builders can quickly become a hot bed for creativity the rapid and multi-directional evolution of Ukraine's drones is quite clearly a Ukrainian phenomenon whether or not there might be outside influence and it certainly shouldn't be a surprise that there would be the onus is still on Ukraine's sea drone creators to add new capabilities and new war fighting potential to their creations and well have they ever between all of its drones from aerial to Naval to landbased Ukraine boasts the capacity to man manufacture well over a 100 different designs many of which are indigenous in a process where the broad trend line indicates that their technological results are only getting better not only that but Ukraine generally quite opposed to acts that the public might see as War profiteering has carved out a legislative allowance for drone makers in particular to charge up to 25% profit on what they produce meanwhile the country announced in February of this year that Ukrainian drone operators would be assigned their own branch of the Ukrainian armed forces the unmanned systems Force the goal is obvious to make Ukraine's drone industry into a sector where people are tripping over themselves to work thus pushing Ukrainian production to the next level with the incredible success of Ukraine's Maritime drone so far the biggest question most Nations have about their sea drones is simple where can we buy some and while Ukraine is not offering any of its drones for sale at this time given that every one Ukraine can produce and then some that needed on the front lines it's a very interesting question in terms of what comes after the war while Anything could happen it seems unlikely at the time of writing that a total Ukrainian defeat will happen anytime soon a surrender that sees Ukraine become fully part of Russia is one of the possible outcomes in this war there's no doubt about that but if Ukraine does begin to experience the sorts of defeats that would make it all but impossible for Russia to be booted off of its territory that it controls then KB's leaders would be far wiser to sue for an unfavorable peace than to try and beg Vladimir Putin that they keep their heads what that means is that no matter how this war goes there will most likely be a Ukrainian sovereign state in some form in the aftermath and when it comes to what that Nation might look like its sea drones could very well play an outsize role when it comes to Nations that have fought the biggest costliest most modernized wars of the 21st century Russia and Ukraine are all but unmatched and with Ukraine now closely tied to the global West its experience and expertise in Modern War fighting are going to be invaluable in the decades to come nowhere does that apply more clearly though than when it comes to Ukraine's use of autonomous War fighting technology both in terms of what Ukraine knows about building it and what Ukrainian combat veterans can teach the world about using those devices in allout modern war and while Ukraine's lessons in adapting off-the-shelf aerial drones will no doubt be very meaningful the things Ukraine can tell the world about sea drones are simply unmatched Ukraine is well on its way to becoming a real player in defense on the global stage producing three billion US doar worth of weapons and equipment in 2023 alongside what it received from Western backers that production capacity includes hundreds of officially recognized manufacturers including large numbers of startup companies and the local decentralized codage industry of SE drone Builders that's a resource only just starting to be recognized on the global stage through largely private research and development Ukraine has thus far been able to take out what the Wilson Center estimates to be up to a third of Russia's Black Sea naval fleet and they forced Russian warships out of the strategically crucial base in Crimea sevastopol once the war ends hundreds of Master Craftsmen and women working on these sea drones are going to have a whole lot of experience that the world world is going to be interested in while there many thousands of workers will have the critical skills to secure work in defense Manufacturing in the long term Untold numbers of Ukrainian War Fighters who've operated these drones in a real conflict are going to hold knowledge that's highly in demand not just in terms of training potential SE drone operators from other nations but in detailing teaching and expanding the Tactical strides that Ukraine has made during this conflict and although other nations can either develop their own concepts of Maritime drones or go shopping for offers from other countries Ukraine sea drones are the only ones with a proven track record of success if you on the good stuff gives got it and once this war ends it'll have a knowledgeable and eager labor force to churn them out all the while Ukraine will likely still have its own demand for large numbers of sea drones after all if Ukraine does indeed survive the war without having a russia-backed puppet government installed it's likely that Ukraine's next leaders after the zalinsky administration will recognize that Russia's appetite for territory is not yet stated whether Putin or a potential successor did have post war designs on a second attack to take the rest of Ukraine or whether they don't Ukraine would be foolish not to plan for the worst and while no feasible amount of Ukrainian defense spending can make it an equal rival against Russia in terms of military might Ukraine has also proven that it doesn't need to its sea drones have already proven that they can devastate Russian naval power as a tiny fraction of Russia's expenditures and if Ukraine rightly treats an initial peace Accord as a sort of intermission between this war and the next then it's clear as day that Ukraine's next Next Step will be to stock up on so many sea drones that the black Seas Fleet Admirals start wetting their beds at night as of now Ukrainian president zalinsky has set his country at a target of 1 million drones produced annually a figure that it certainly couldn't hit today but one that becomes far more achievable in a post-war setting add to that Ukraine's likely need to employ its veterans after the war ends and its historically high unemployment rate in the decade prior to the current war and a maritime drone industry could not only create major opportunity inside post-war Ukraine but fix some of its anticipated issues as well in order to get Ukraine to the level where it could become a defense Powerhouse many experts around the world suggest that now is the time for Investments to start pouring in per an article by The Institute for the study of War Ukraine already has many of the indicators that suggest that it could take its current wartime industry and make it into a long-term success story the country is heavily industrialized highly educated and his population lives fully in the technological Realm of the 21st century it's already got a history of exporting it's converted a wide range of pre-war manufacturing centers to serve defense purposes and its people are gaining expertise not only in building a lot of things very quickly but in making Innovation and Cornerstone of their process Ukraine has long been regarded as a nominally neutral bullwark between the NATO alliance and Russia and the country's current leaders are clearly attempting to Pivot their country into a role as NATO's Bastion against Moscow for the long term if Ukraine becomes the defense industrial Behemoth that it could one day be it'll be able to produce far more than just Maritime drones from artillery to heavy Munitions to armored vehicles to electronic warfare systems but if Ukraine is looking to find a spot where it really stands out from the competition Maritime drones are it and if they can make the transition from Desperate wartime Innovation to a centerpiece of Ukraine's manufacturing wheelhouse then the hell that Russia has put Ukraine through over the past two years might finally end up having a bit of a payoff all right so with the resounding success of Ukraine's Maritime drones one might expect that Ukraine's allies around the world would be pretty excited the United States European Union Nations like Argentina Australia Morocco and other countries that have sent Aid or military equipment to Ukraine should all be pretty stoked to see their preferred side winning the war and they are except there's a caveat with drones of All Sorts across the war in Ukraine the primary reason why an unmanned systems dominant strategy works is cost we've said it already and we'll say it again these drones are relatively cheap relatively easy to manufacture relatively easy to operate at no imminent risk to one's own life and they're capable of taking out enemy targets that are far more expensive than those drones could ever be it's a technology that takes a nation that can stand on its wealth and economic power and cuts it at the back of the ankles so that it can topple to the ground in spectacular fashion but SE drones in particular are on a whole other level Naval assaults are very very expensive and even worse they're an exceptionally efficient way to concentrate a lot of spent wealth into a single bable system if America for example provides 122 billion to its Air Force it might get say 350 plus f-16s out of the deal in order to truly make America waste that investment you'd have to destroy 350 plus individual pieces of equipment and given that they're highly maneuverable well armed and can fly faster and higher than any drones that could be produced in the way Ukraine's been producing its drones well getting them all down is going to be a bloody difficult task but take that same 122 billion and give it to the US Navy and they'll be able to procure just one limits class aircraft carrier and maybe a couple of inflatable dingies to spare that's 122 billion in purchasing power all riding around inside a top or as part of a single Hull where the kind of right Direct Hit could send the whole thing to the bottom of the ocean and while a swarm of quadcopters for example might not be able to catch that aforementioned F-16 a pack of sea babies under the right conditions can absolutely catch the USS Dwight Eisenhower in the water what that means is that regardless of how a certain world nation feels about the Russia Ukrainian war or which side if any they support the way that they feel about the rise of Ukraine sea drones might exist on a shall we say separate spectrum and the factor that determines how a nation feels about those tends to be pretty directly correlated to the size of their Navy for Nations that have poured their wealth their time their energy and their Manpower into developing robust navies the arrival of sea drones is a major and potentially catastrophic problem that includes not just Russia but the United States China the UK Japan India South Korea Taiwan Italy and a number of others all hailing from different ideologies alliances and corners of the globe for each of those Nations the ships they've taken such pains to acquire come with a very strict policy of no takebackspace as remorse they feel they'll never be able to convert those ships back into the money that was spent on them for Nations who don't have such impressive navies but have at least enough money to pick up a couple of hundred sea drones from either Ukraine or whatever Nations start copying Ukraine's drone industry in the future then the Navies of those more powerful Nations aren't nearly as much of a threat those powerful Nations can send their ships along with all the sailors and equipment on board into Harm's Way knowing from Russia's example that with a few direct hits from a Mami or aora that those ships are done for and the souls on board will be lost or they can sit those same ships and their Sailors in a friendly well- defended port and desperately fight the failing battle that might prevent the world from having a chuckle at their Maritime expense in the long term it's not widely expected that the proliferation of sea drones will lead to the end of world navies as we know them just like the development of ground attack aircraft led to the development of anti-aircraft guns and Interceptor aircraft and the development of missile technology led to the development of missile defenses systems so too are the innovators and Wealthy nations of the world generally expected to create defensive measures in due time hpad microwave weapons for example are expected to be instrumental in blunting the effectiveness of drone technology by creating a force field like bubble in which these drones are forced to basically power down but let us know if you'd like to see more on that technology in a future episode the rise of SE drones doesn't mean that every Destroyer or missile Cruiser or aircraft carrier is destined to be sunk by anybody who can learn to drive a remote controlled boat around their bathtub but it does mean that a long awaited transition to Maritime drone swarm attacks is here and it's come with some surprises Ukraine's rapid pace of development and its ability to make massive leaps and payload endurance and attack speed simultaneously suggest that the advancement of this technology is going to happen very quickly although Ukraine's advancement is Guided by the needs of its war against Russia it stands to reason that a similarly motivated Force could Advance SE drone technology quickly in ways that get around its own adversaries defenses and whether proud Naval Nations like it or not they've got to realize that Maritime drones like these are just too potent for their potential wartime enemies to pass up from the perspective of the United States it's Nations like North Korea Iran or possibly even Cuba that could stand to gain the most from this from the perspective of China it's Taiwan and the Philippines who would be best served by picking up Ukrainian or Ukraine likee hardware and for Russia it's Scandinavian and Baltic Nations at the front lines of hypothetical confrontation with NATO the same Alliance that's been Co booing up to the Drone Powerhouse that Russia has had so much trouble in defeating and for the entire world its organizations and non-state actors like the houie rebels who've managed to cause losses and impose staggering economic costs on global Shipping by using aerial drone and missile technology that Maritime Nations do know how to defend against and it's here that the long-term threat of sea drones can come into better focus on the one hand there's the possibility that the first large scale implementation of anti-sea drone measures won't nullify the threat at all but off a sort of arms race ship Nations if you will trying to get better defenses before drone Nations get better drones as war strategy expert in Kins College London Professor alesio patalano put it while writing the Time Magazine quote Ukrainian drones and missiles are adding a 21st century meaning to the old truth that the ability to overcome losses makes all the difference in war at Sea in a conflict a warship is safe only when it is outside the range of a cannon shot a combatant especially a numerically inferior one will seek to close the gap and this is an assumption that navies need to address or else find themselves without a fleet but just as important is the capacity for sea drones to allow Bad actors of all Stripes to Target not just military Maritime power but economic Maritime power too said patalano quoting again sea Lanes feed us keep us warm and deliver the furniture of daily life some 97% of the internet and a major proportion of international energy use relies on an undersee spaghetti bowl of cables and pipelines that closely mirror commercial shipping routes this this multi-layered network of physical and digital connectivity is safe and reliable only until it is not as he explains sea trade and C infrastructure are a critical stress point for most developed trading nations with C access and as houy Rebels saley Pirates and a range of other non-state actors have shown it's also very easy to disrupt an advanced military Destroyer might one day be refitted to include a high-powered microwave weapon but are Global shipping companies like MK and Costco going to do the same a well-placed hit from a single SE drone with an explosive yield that Ukraine has demonstrated can be at or above a th000 kog of TNT could very well be capable of sending massive container ships and bulk carriers to the Bottom of the Sea and with the houth example we know what this means immense Financial losses shipping delays and skyrocketing Insurance prices that make the act of transiting some Goods just not worth doing anymore and it's here that the potential most important implication of SE drones can come into Focus yeah they're currently doing an exceptionally good job dealing with Russian naval Assets in Wartime and yes in future Wars they're probably going to be able to do the same at least to some degree but they're likely to be especially potent when challenging peacetime navies organizations that have historically been able to rely on intermittent patrols and visible placements of their ships in order to deter any disruption to global trade now not only can these sea drones be built and deployed on the cheap but they're very difficult to detect even if you're right next to them and the world simply does not have the resources or the naval infrastructure to give every cargo ship close protection with global Navy getting smaller in its budget cuts that close protection infrastructure can't exist for at least another decade or two at a bare minimum meanwhile the houthi Rebels for example have already used their own one-off remote control boats to attack Saudi Targets in their Red Sea ports at the sophistication the technological advancements and the multi-d Drone coordination that Ukraine has shown and provided to organizations that already have the will and the basic tactical understanding required to make those operations work and the whole world that exists out at Sea is looking at perhaps its greatest challenge since the you boat wolf packs of World War II for now the use of Naval drones will continue to primarily be Ukraine's Dominion as the nation still wrapped up in the Intensive demands of warfare has little ability to think about proliferation or further developments of their National Industry but Global navies the world over have already started to make preparations both picking up Technologies and starting sea drone programs of their own and starting to Rack their brains what they might have on hands or might be able to develop in order to keep drones at Bay in the future for years Humanity has known that drone technology was the Pandora's box of the early 21st century but now alongside the quadcopter the shahad The Reaper and more aerial drones have a new partner that might prove to be even more potent than they ever were SE drones are already becoming an outsize player in global conflict and they're only just getting started [Music]

Channel: Warographics

Views: 678,743

Keywords: ukraine new arsenal, sea drones, ukraine

Id: cd-TAs8NgBg

Length: 38min 58sec (2338 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 22 2024