{"id":15128,"date":"2024-02-06T00:46:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T00:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/06\/a-ukrainian-pilot-outlines-how-drones-powered-by-jet-skis-sunk-a-russian-warship\/"},"modified":"2024-02-06T00:46:11","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T00:46:11","slug":"a-ukrainian-pilot-outlines-how-drones-powered-by-jet-skis-sunk-a-russian-warship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/06\/a-ukrainian-pilot-outlines-how-drones-powered-by-jet-skis-sunk-a-russian-warship\/","title":{"rendered":"A Ukrainian pilot outlines how drones powered by jet skis sunk a Russian warship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

All it took was six sea drones, powered by jet skis, to fell a Russian guided missile ship last week, according to a rare interview with the secretive Ukrainian unit behind the attack. <\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s Defense Intelligence said at the time that the small Russian warship, the Ivanovets, suffered multiple hits to its hull before it was sunk by drones\u00a0in\u00a0an inlet on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula. <\/p>\n

The \u201cMAGURA\u201d drones are only a few meters long and powered by jet skis,\u00a0the pilot\u00a0said, but they\u00a0have a large range of around\u00a0800\u00a0kilometers\u00a0(nearly 500 miles), giving his unit freedom to launch their drones from across large swathes of Ukraine\u2019s coastline for missions against Crimean targets. <\/p>\n

The pilot, identified\u00a0as call sign \u201c13,\u201d is a member of a special unit\u00a0in\u00a0Ukraine\u2019s defense intelligence agency (GUR),\u00a0which has\u00a0been linked to a number of attacks on Crimea and into Russia itself, often using drones to hit far beyond the range of conventional weapons of Ukraine\u2019s arsenal. <\/p>\n

Night-time footage released by the Ukrainians showed Russians firing at the drones as they raced towards\u00a0the Ivanovets, before at least two drones struck the side of the ship, disabling it and causing massive explosions. <\/p>\n

The footage includes a striking scene\u00a0of what appears to be the\u00a0bow of the Ivanovets\u00a0sticking out of the water as it sinks to the bottom of\u00a0Lake Donuzlav. <\/p>\n

Calls for more drones<\/h2>\n

Kyiv is increasingly turning to drones to level the playing field with Russia, with a string of drone attacks hitting strategic targets in Russia in recent weeks. <\/p>\n

Moscow\u2019s oil and gas infrastructure has come under threat, with a drone attack on a Russian oil terminal about 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Saint Petersburg. <\/p>\n

On the battlefield too, Ukraine\u2019s top general has called for more widespread use of drones, both to save the lives of Ukrainian troops and to negate Russia\u2019s material advantage in arms and ammunition. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn short, this means nothing less than the wholesale redesign of battlefield operations \u2013 and the abandoning of outdated, stereotypical thinking,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Since Russia\u2019s takeover of Crimea in 2014 \u2013 and following further losses after Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion \u2013 Ukraine no longer has a functioning navy in the Black Sea.\u00a0But\u00a0the sinking\u00a0of the Ivanovets is another\u00a0victory\u00a0in Ukraine\u2019s campaign against Russia\u2019s Black Sea Fleet. <\/p>\n

The most notable of its strikes was the attack on the Moskva in April 2022, which forced Russia to change the way it operates close to areas controlled by Ukraine. <\/p>\n

\u2018<\/em>Jeweler\u2019s work\u2019<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0impact\u00a0of the drones is impressive but it\u2019s delicate work,\u00a0said the pilot. <\/p>\n

Controlled from afar via a Starlink connection, the drones can also be pre-programmed for the long journeys across the Black Sea. <\/p>\n

A pilot is constantly monitoring the drone\u2019s passage,\u00a0he\u00a0said, with the final\u00a0run into the targets often controlled manually. <\/p>\n

The drone\u2019s 250kg (551lb) payload can be increased to 300kg,\u00a0he added, \u201cbut there is no need to do so.\u201d Even against some of the toughest ships of Moscow\u2019s Black Sea fleet, the drones have proved their effectiveness. <\/p>\n

At almost\u00a0six\u00a0meters long, the drones are imposing out of the water.\u00a0But\u00a0once afloat, they make a hard target for defending Russians. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are quite difficult to see, especially in the open sea. This size makes it difficult to control it because the sea is choppy but it also makes it much harder for the enemy to hit us,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The weaponry aboard Russia\u2019s warships wasn\u2019t designed with drones in mind, forcing targets like the IVAN to use cannons better suited to duels with other ships,\u00a0the pilot\u00a0said. <\/p>\n

Video of the attack shows rounds hitting the water\u00a0as\u00a0the drones home in on the\u00a0Ivanovets.\u00a0The ammunition is\u00a0unable to stop the incoming bombs. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo warship can be as manoeuvrable as these drones,\u201d\u00a0he added. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All it took was six sea drones, powered by jet skis, to fell a Russian guided missile ship last week, according to a rare interview with the secretive Ukrainian unit behind the attack. Ukraine\u2019s Defense Intelligence said at the time that the small Russian warship, the Ivanovets, suffered multiple hits to its hull before it <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}