Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has now been going on for over three years (-> current news from the Ukraine war) has already resulted in numerous military innovations and surprises. The most recent premiere event: the shooting down of a Russian supersonic fighter plane by a Ukrainian naval drone.
The special unit “Group 13” of the Ukrainian Defence Intelligence Service has navigated a Magura-7 naval drone to around 50 kilometers from the port of Novorossiysk. The remains of the Russian Black Sea Fleet are anchored there. The unmanned water vehicle (USV) had to have covered a distance of at least 700 kilometers to do so.
The Magura-7 is a variant of the Magura-5, but instead of being equipped with an explosive charge against ships (-> Successful attack with Magura-5 on the frigate “Ivanovets”), the Magura-7 is equipped with infrared guided missiles to shoot down aircraft.
Ukraine has been working on this special capability for more than a year. After several failures the downing of two Mi-8 helicopters on December 31, 2024.
On May 3, it was now a fighter jet: a Sukhoi Su-30SM (NATO: Flanker-H) of the Russian naval aviation. According to Russian sources, the aircraft belonged to the 43rd Assault Aviation Regiment of the Black Sea Fleet, which is stationed in occupied Saki in Crimea.
Now that the Russian Black Sea Fleet has largely lost its naval supremacy to the Ukrainian USV, it is also threatened with losing its air supremacy.
The Russian Telegram channel “fighterbomber” comments that Ukraine is now maneuvering more than three dozen USVs in the vicinity of Novorossiysk. According to the channel, there are no guided or self-guided weapons in the world capable of reliably hitting such small and fast-moving targets. Russian aircraft would therefore attempt to engage the USVs with on-board weapons on sight.
That may well be true from Russia’s point of view: Russia generally tries to compensate for its weaknesses in precision with significantly larger warheads – but this does not work with small, moving targets. NATO, on the other hand, already has sea- and air-based weapons to combat asymmetric surface targets in the form of systems such as the RIM-116 or Hellfire.
Initially, Ukrainian and Russian sources speculated about the use of a Soviet-made R-73 missile. However, according to the “fighterbomber” channel, the USVs were equipped with MANPADS.
In an interview with “The War Zone” the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Service, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, explained that the USV had fired an AIM-9M Sidewinder missile. “We use several types of missiles on our Magura-7, but we achieve the best results with the AIM-9,” Budanov told TWZ.
The Russian Telegram channel “voenkorKotenok” (War Correspondent Kitten) draws three sobering conclusions from this:
- The enemy (Ukraine) has taken the initiative in the waters of the Black Sea.
- The Black Sea Fleet is in a state of crisis after the loss of its flagship “Moskva” (-> The last dramatic hours of the “Moskva”) and other ships, it has still not been militarily restored. The remainder withdraws to harbors and bays.
- The enemy (Ukraine) has an overwhelming advantage in the use of unmanned boats (USV) – with the ability to attack in any part of the sea area and keep both the coast of the Russian Federation and the adjacent airspace under control.
And Kätzchen continues: “Russia needs new victories so that its ‘allies’ do not cancel their participation in parades in future for health reasons.”
This sentence is an allusion to the fact that several invited state guests canceled their participation in the May 9 celebrations on Red Square at short notice, probably also for fear of possible Ukrainian drone attacks.
Here to our drone topic area with all the latest news on the subject.
