Authors: Liu Chengxin, Huang Bingcheng, Ge Wenlin, Chen Guanyu
On the battlefield of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, unmanned boats, as an emerging unmanned equipment, have begun to show their unique combat capabilities. In Ukraine's multiple attacks on the Russian Black Sea Fleet, unmanned boats have played a key role, successfully sinking or severely damaging a number of ships, which has attracted great attention from all parties.
Figure 1 Screenshot of the Ukrainian army's announcement of a suicide unmanned boat attacking a Russian Project 22160 patrol ship
"Learning from the pain" - unmanned raid under asymmetric advantage
On February 14 of this year, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced a remarkable result: the 13th Special Forces Unit of the Defense Intelligence Agency successfully sank a large Russian landing ship, the "Kaiser Kunikov", using the MaguraV5 suicide unmanned boat.
The MaguraV5 suicide unmanned boat has already proven itself in a number of operations, causing significant damage to the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. On August 4, 2023, the landing ship "Olenegorsky Gorniak" was hit, resulting in damage to the water ingress; On February 1, 2024, the missile boat "Ivanovitz" was sunk. Together with the "Minsk" and "Novocherkassk", which were previously hit by Ukrainian cruise missiles, at least four Russian Toad-class landing ships suffered heavy losses, which is a significant loss for the Russian Navy.
On March 24, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on social media that the Ukrainian Defense Forces successfully hit two landing ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, "Yamal" and "Azov", as well as a communications center and several other important infrastructure facilities through unmanned boats.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet is frequently attacked by suicide unmanned boats, which raises widespread attention about how to effectively counter such unmanned combat equipment. With the continuous development and application of UAV technology, the face of modern maritime warfare is undergoing profound changes, and the navies of all countries are actively exploring and adapting to this new battlefield reality.
Figure 2 Ukraine's third-generation maritime unmanned attack boats
"Take it as a warning" - the thoughts of the Black Sea Fleet in the event of an attack
Maintain a high level of combat readiness of the ship. In modern maritime conflicts, unmanned boats have become an emerging threat that cannot be ignored. Due to their small size and high moving speed, these unmanned boats pose a significant challenge to traditional surface ships. Due to the limitation of size, the reflection cross section of the unmanned boat on the radar is small, which is difficult to be captured by conventional shipborne monitoring equipment in time. This stealth characteristic gives the unmanned boat suddenness and concealment in maritime operations, so that surface ships often lack sufficient warning time when facing a surprise attack. Against this background, the continued high combat readiness of the ships is particularly critical. The officers and men of the warships must always be vigilant and be fully prepared to deal with the attacks of unmanned boats, so as to ensure that they will not fall into passivity in a sudden battle. This state of combat readiness is reflected not only in the level of alertness and training of personnel, but also in the maintenance of the ship's systems and the immediate response of combat equipment.
In the case of the Sergei Kotov, for example, its commander is well versed in fending off unmanned "swarm" attacks, always matching the combat readiness of the ship with potential threats. Through unremitting efforts and meticulous tactical planning, the ship successfully repelled multiple attacks by unmanned boats, demonstrating a high level of unmanned boat defense capabilities. This success is not accidental, but stems from the ship's officers and men's deep understanding of the modern maritime combat situation and the continuous improvement of the emergency response mechanism. The overall functioning of the ship's systems is normal and is an important basis for maintaining a high level of combat readiness. In the incident of the "Ivanov" missile boat being attacked by a Ukrainian unmanned boat, the video data released by the military showed that although the 30-mm AK-630 naval guns on the boat opened heavy fire, they were unable to deal with close-range targets such as unmanned boats. This was not due to the malfunction of the fire system itself, but to the fact that the gun was not designed to deal with such fast-moving small-sized targets. In real combat, the ship's anti-close-range target artillery failed to respond in time, which became a key factor in the failure of the defense.
Figure 3 A reconnaissance drone equipped by a surface ship of the U.S. Navy
Use drones to perceive enemy attacks. UAVs have a smaller size and faster movement speed, which allows them to approach enemy unmanned boats more flexibly for close monitoring and tracking. In contrast, traditional radar monitoring modes are often difficult to capture small and fast targets, and drones have a wider monitoring range. Since UAVs can fly to higher air, they are able to provide a wider range of sight, which allows for earlier detection of enemy unmanned boat attacks. However, the traditional radar monitoring mode is limited by the detection distance and angle of the radar, and the monitoring range is relatively small. UAVs have higher concealment. Due to the small size and low noise of the drone, it is difficult for enemy unmanned boats to detect its presence. This allows your drones to silently approach and monitor the activities of enemy drones without being detected by the enemy. UAVs can provide more accurate target information. Since the sensors and cameras carried by drones can directly photograph and monitor enemy unmanned boats, they can provide more accurate information such as target location, speed and movement trajectory. However, the traditional radar monitoring mode can only provide the distance and azimuth information of the target, but cannot provide detailed target characteristics. Therefore, the use of unmanned boats for early warning of enemy drone attacks is more efficient.
However, judging from the current construction situation of the Russian Navy, there is still a long way to go on the road of "machine-made boats." The Russian Navy's drone unit began in 2013, and the drones on ships are usually land-based versions of the Seahawk-10, and only a small number of ships are equipped with them. In January 2024, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that frigates of the 22160 series should carry at least four Sea Hawk-10 UAVs. However, at present, the surface ships of the Russian Navy are equipped with only a few small civilian UAVs, which are basically purchased by the crew themselves or provided through volunteers. Moreover, when an adversary uses a suicide unmanned surface boat at night, the role that such a small civilian UAV is capable of playing is minimal.
Increased the availability of flexible and portable weapons. Due to its low waterline, high moving speed and good concealment, suicide unmanned boats pose a considerable defensive challenge to surface ships. Especially under the cover of night, these small, high-speed unmanned boats are difficult to detect and track, when faced with a coordinated attack launched by multiple suicide unmanned boats with "wolf pack" tactics, the ship's defense system may be overwhelmed and missed, so that some unmanned boats can break through the defense line and successfully carry out the attack. The reason why unmanned boat invasion has become a defense problem is mainly due to its high speed of movement and high flexibility, which allows them to quickly change course and speed to evade the traditional weapon fire points of surface ships. This high-speed and flexible nature allows the unmanned boat to quickly shuttle on the battlefield, using its low profile and good stealth performance to launch a surprise attack on enemy ships. Therefore, when surface ships deal with such fast-moving small targets, they often face the problem of insufficient coverage of firepower points, and it is difficult to effectively intercept and destroy these flexible unmanned boats.
As can be seen from the video of the destruction of Ukrainian unmanned boats released by the Russian military, even artillery systems with powerful firepower are unable to cope with the "wolf pack" tactics of unmanned boats. Although these artillery systems are capable of delivering devastating blows to unmanned boats, due to the large number of unmanned boats and the flexibility of their attack methods, it is often difficult for artillery systems to quickly adjust their gun positions and effectively strike multiple targets. On the other hand, although ordinary carrier-based machine guns have a certain effect when dealing with unmanned boats, due to the insufficient number of machine guns on the ship, the ship's defense capability is stretched thin under the saturation attack of the unmanned boat cluster. Shipborne machine guns, although inferior in power to large artillery systems, have the advantage of flexibility and rapid reaction. In the fight against cluster unmanned boats, these small machine guns can quickly strike at approaching unmanned boats, effectively compensating for the shortcomings of large artillery systems. Therefore, increasing the number of small machine guns on surface ships can effectively improve the ship's ability to defend against attacks by unmanned boats. By increasing the number and distribution of machine guns, ships can form a denser network of firepower and increase the probability of interception of clusters of unmanned boats.