On February 1, the Ukrainian military published a video showing an apparently successful attack by several unmanned naval drones (USV – Unmanned Surface Vehicle) on the corvette “Ivanovets” of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
The ship, of the “Project 1241.1” class known in Russia as the “Blitz”, NATO refers to the ship type as “Tarantul II”, was at the time of the attack in the so-called Donulav Sea, an elongated saltwater bay on the western side of Crimea. The main weapon system of this ship class are two twin launchers with P-15 Termit anti-ship missiles (NATO: SS-N-2 Styx). The Styx became famous when a group of Egyptian missile boats sank the Israeli destroyer “Eilat” with three P-15s on October 21, 1967. It was the first sinking of a warship with a sea-based missile in the history of naval warfare. https://youtu.be/wKA7ETSJ6ew “Project 1241.1” also has a fully automatic 76-millimetre AK-176M cannon and two fully automatic 30-millimetre AK-630M machine guns for close-range defence. All three guns are radar-controlled. In addition, a quadruple launcher for Igla surface-to-air missiles (NATO: SA-N-5) is used for anti-aircraft defense and two 5,000 hp gas turbines enable speeds of up to 42 knots (78 km/h). The attack on the corvette is said to have been carried out by the special unit “Group 13” of the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Service from 03.45 local time (01.45 CET). The video recording of the attack shows that the first two naval drones were steered into the stern of the ship, meaning that the corvette was to be deprived of its powerful propulsion system. The defensive fire visible in the video also comes from machine gun salvos. The use of the 76-millimetre cannon, however, cannot be seen. https://militaeraktuell.at/wanted-neuer-advanced-jet-trainer-gesucht/ The third USV, which must have hit, cannot be seen in the video. But the fourth one steers directly into a large hole in the port side amidships. According to current Ukrainian sources, a total of six USVs are said to have hit the target, while Russian sources speak of a total of ten USVs being involved in the attack. The crew of the corvette usually consists of five officers and 45 sailors. According to Russian sources – and these thus confirm the sinking – there were no personnel losses as a result of the attack. Ukraine, on the other hand, claims that the Russian search and rescue operation was unsuccessful.
Ukraine has not yet officially announced which UPS type was used to carry out the attack – however, according to the latest information, it is said to have been a Magura V5. A total of four Ukrainian UPS types are known to date. All of them are presumably remote-controlled via satellite connection. Taking into account the associated time delay, targeting cannot be a very simple undertaking. The use of USVs against the “Ivanovets” is the first known naval drone swarm attack on a warship in the history of naval warfare.
