Military Drone Boats and Maritime Weapons Keeping Russia at Bay in the Black Sea

Video Above: Drone Boats

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

Drone boats, anti-ship missiles and other maritime weapons appear to be helping Ukraine successfully defend its critical coastal areas along the Black Sea, something which speaks to Ukrainian ingenuity, pure determination and unwillingness to surrender.

Missiles

The Pentagon says the US has provided some training on unmanned coastal defense vessels, but add that Ukraine is capable of producing its own anti-ship missiles, one of which appears to have already destroyed a Russian warship.

“They have their own ability to manufacture anti-ship cruise missiles, the Neptunes. That is a Ukrainian product and they can still produce those,” a senior Pentagon official told reporters, according to a Pentagon transcript.

Perhaps this is one key reason why Russia has not, as of yet, launched a second amphibious attack from the Black Sea, something they did at the beginning of the war. 

Additionally, it seems somewhat surprising that Russian warships and submarines have not launched large numbers of long-range Kalibr submarine and ship-launched cruise missiles. Much like a Tomahawk, these Russian weapons are long-range and quite likely engineered with precision guidance.