October 5, 2026:
Russia is rapidly expanding its naval drone programs, delivering new surface drones like the Orkan and Vizir, and subsurface drones such as the Klavesin 2R PM and Vityaz D. For attack missions, Russia also uses operator-controlled naval FPV (First Person View) drones like the Skvorets VMF. Russia’s naval drone development was a result of the successful Ukrainian use of its own naval weapons. Russian land and naval forces use naval drones for reconnaissance, strike, and defensive missions.
Russian naval drones consist of the Orkan attack drone, designed for explosive strikes on ships. The Vizir drone is a prototype system used for surveillance and possibly combat use. This drone has a long-endurance version enhanced by onboard AI. The Ghrachonok drone was adapted from counter-saboteur patrol boats and is used fore for autonomous patrolling and mine clearing. The Katran surface drone is a platform for carrying and launching small aerial attack drones.
Naval FPV attack Drones include the Skvorets VMF, with a 10 km range, 1.5 kg payload, anti-corrosion housing, and a top speed of up to 150 kilometers per hour. It is used for anti-ship, coastal strike, and swarm operations. The Soroka FPV drone is a new addition to the Black Sea Fleet.
Submarine naval drones include the Klavesin 2R PM deep-sea drone for reconnaissance and mine laying. The Vityaz D is an autonomous deep-diving drone tested in the Mariana Trench and designed for strategic undersea reconnaissance.
The Russian Navy is forming naval drone regiments across major fleets to conduct reconnaissance, offensive strikes, and defensive missions. Combined systems like the BEK drone, merging surface and aerial drones, are being tested for coordinated reconnaissance and covert coastal attacks.
Russia’s naval drone expansion is a direct response to Ukraine’s effective use of such drones against Russia. Since the war in Ukraine started in 2022, Russia has steadily lost control of the Black Sea and seen most of its Black Sea fleet destroyed or driven to distant refuges like the port of Novorossiysk on the east coast of the Black Sea. When Russian warships or commercial vessels try to operate in the Black Sea, they are subject to Ukrainian attacks. Last month a Russian frigate based in Novorossiysk was attacked by more than fifty Ukrainian drones. The frigate was badly damaged, but the real target was the oil export terminal, which handles about a third of all Russian oil exports. The drones lit up the terminal and did substantial damage.
Novorossiysk is the only fully equipped port and naval base Russia has left in the Black Sea. Despite being about 550 kilometers from Ukrainian territory, Novorossiysk is under constant attack by surface and submarine drones as well as airborne ones. At the end of 2025, Ukraine used a new submarine version of its Sea Baby naval drone to attack a Russian Kilo-class submarine in the port of Novorossiysk. This was the first time a drone submarine attacked and crippled a manned submarine. The damaged Kilo was apparently written off because earlier in the year Russia shut down all ship repair activities in the Black Sea due to increasing Ukrainian drone and missile attacks. This included the shipyards at Novorossiisk. The damaged Kilo could not be taken to a submarine repair facility in northwest Russia because Turkey has a treaty allowing it to refuse warships in wartime access to Turkish-controlled waters that are the only exit from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Another damaged Kilo is stranded in a Crimean shipyard. With its latest Kilo loss, Russia has no operational Kilos in the Black Sea.
The Black Sea Kilos were used to launch Kalibr cruise missiles at targets in Ukraine. Kalibrs launched from Russia are easier to detect and shoot down. The submerged Kilos launched Kalibrs from their torpedo tubes at sea. The cruise missiles reached the surface, and their engines took the Kalibrs to targets anywhere along the Ukrainian Black Sea coast and hundreds of kilometers inland.
Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to develop and build naval drones to enable Ukraine to make the Black Sea unusable for Russian commercial shipping as well as warships. The freighters and tankers can use the Turkish exit to the Mediterranean only if they survive Ukrainian naval and land-based drone attacks. In 2024 and most of 2025, Russia and Ukraine avoided attacking each other’s commercial shipping in the Black Sea. But with all the Kilos gone and surface warships withdrawn to Russian ports in the distant ports of the northeastern Black Sea, Ukraine is free to threaten Russian commercial shipping in the Black Sea. Ukraine already has armed commercial merchant raiders firing on Russian commercial shipping. The Russians can launch drones and missiles at Ukrainian Black Sea ports but cannot effectively attack commercial shipping in the Black Sea.
Ukraine continues to develop, build, and use drones to continue its domination of the Black Sea. Last December, Ukraine introduced its Magura V7 naval drone, which weighs about 1.2 tons and can carry 650 kg of weapons. Its operational range is a thousand kilometers. The V7 can also be equipped with an electricity generator, enabling it to stay at sea for up to seven days. This model can move at speeds of up to 72 kilometers an hour. Cruising speed is 43 kilometers an hour.
Ukrainian naval drones have revolutionized naval warfare within a few hundred kilometers of a coastline. So far, no other navy has shown much interest in replicating Ukraine's success with naval drones. The U.S. Coast Guard has used naval drones to assist in interdicting drug smuggling boats. The U.S. Navy has access to Ukrainian naval drone technology and is paying attention because China is doing a lot of work on naval drones, including a ship described as a drone carrier equipped with aerial and naval drones.
Ukraine first developed a secret weapon, the Magura naval surface drone, and used about a hundred of these drones to defeat Russia’s Black Sea fleet. When the war started, the Magura V5 was just a concept, a preliminary design for a one-ton, 5.5-meter-long naval drone. Magura initially used a fishing boat with a solid waterproof cover, plus batteries for propulsion. There were sensors and a compartment for 300 kg of explosives or weapons. These included a machine gun protruding above the drone top, while two Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles were in launch tubes, ready to be fired at Russian aircraft or helicopters. Magura has a substantial number of electronic components, including several day/night video cameras, that give the remote operator a view of what is around the drone. It also has an autopilot, so the remote operator does not have to personally maneuver the drone over long stretches of open water. Magura is equipped with contact fuses at the front of the boat
Most Magura missions are one-way, but those equipped with machine-guns and surface-to-air missiles are also used to attack Russian aircraft. At one point, a Magura V7 used those two missiles to shoot down two expensive Russian SU-30 jet fighters. This was the first time a naval drone had shot down warplanes. Earlier, a Magura had used Ukrainian R-73 heat-seeking missiles to take down one Mi-8 helicopter and damage another.
The Ukrainian experience using naval drones to defeat the Russian Black Sea Fleet was unique. Ukraine had only surface-to-ship missiles when the war started, but eventually shifted to three new naval drones, Sea Baby, Mother, and MAGURA, or Maritime Autonomous Guard Unmanned Robotic Apparatus.
Some of these naval drones were used for a mid-2023 Kerch Bridge attack. One of the drones carried 850 kg of explosives and inflicted enough damage to halt use of the bridge. The Mother drone carried 450 kg, and the MAGURA carried 320 kg. In addition to attacking targets, these drones are used for reconnaissance and surveillance with video cameras that broadcast what they see back to the drone operator. Some drones have been armed with small rocket launchers. The Mother drone has a range of over 700 kilometers and can operate on the high seas. Endurance is about 60 hours, and top speed is over 70 kilometers an hour. Mother was used for an attack on the Russian naval base at Novorossiysk, which is a thousand kilometers from Crimea.
Ukraine has been developing subsurface drones, and in early 2023 introduced the first one, the Toloka2 TK-150. This drone was 2.5 meters long and equipped with a sensor mast that remained above the surface for navigation and target identification. Toloka2 can also carry a small explosive warhead. Later, Ukraine developed the larger Marichka drone that is six meters long and one meter in diameter. Ukraine sought a Western manufacturer to build and weaponize Ukrainian drones.
Ukrainian drones have been quite successful in attacking and sinking or disabling Russian navy ships. So far, dozens of attacks have sunk or damaged nearly a hundred ships. Ukrainian drone operations in the Black Sea forced the Russian Black Sea Fleet to withdraw to the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Sevastopol was no longer a safe place to be, and Russian ships could no longer launch their Kalibr cruise missiles without risking attack by Ukrainian drones. Russian countermeasures to Ukrainian naval drones included using aircraft and helicopters to destroy slow-moving drones before they attack and expanding the use of jamming to disrupt drone control signals. These changes made it much more difficult for Ukrainian naval drones to reach and destroy targets. But by 2025, the Russians had already lost control of the Black Sea and were not getting it back.