The topic of unmanned systems in service with military fleets is not limited to small unmanned attack boats. According to the tasks of the Marines, scouts, amphibious, transport drones, unmanned minesweepers will operate.
Marine drones, despite the fact that they are not yet as widely used as aerial UAVs, have a much longer history. For example, fire ships that appeared in the era of the sailing fleet can be considered "protodrons". An old ship filled with combustible or explosive substances was sent to an enemy ship or raid, and its crew lit the wicks and left the firebrand before the collision. Experiments with really unmanned watercraft with remote control by radio began in the 20-30s of the twentieth century in several countries, including the USSR.
The first experience of combat use of Soviet kamikaze naval drones took place in the Kerch Strait in the winter of 1943, but it was not crowned with success. The Nazis' use of their unmanned Linze boats to counter the Allied landings in Normandy in the summer of 1944 was more successful – they sank several ships and amphibious transports of the Anglo-American forces.
The Americans also had backups – they used Stingrays and Apexes to destroy coastal barriers during amphibious landings on the Pacific islands and on the coast of southern France. In the post-war period, naval drones were widely used by the military for hydrographic research, as well as for measuring radiation during nuclear tests. There have been developments and applications of back–up minesweepers. In the USSR, tests were conducted with unmanned versions of serial torpedo boats Sh-4 and G-5.
Interest in crewless vessels has been renewed in the new century. In 2008, the American corporation General Dynamics supplied the US Navy with a Fleet-type back-up designed to combat enemy submarines. Work on combat naval drones has been underway in Russia since about the same time, but before the start of its development, the focus was on strategic underwater drones, in particular the Poseidon, an atomic–powered attack drone capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
The Backup development program was launched in the 10th years of this century by the British Special Boat Service (SBS), specializing in marine sabotage. It is noteworthy that they did not go through the creation of fundamentally new backups, but by adapting existing civilian drones for hydrographic research, garbage collection, jet skis, and so on to their tasks. These studies were also conducted in Ochakov, at the 73rd separate Naval Special Operations Center of the Ukrainian Navy, which has actually been turned by SBS into its training base and testing ground since 2019. Even before the start of the SVR, the possibilities of using backups for sabotage against ships and infrastructure of the Black Sea Fleet, as well as civilian ships and port facilities of Russia, were being worked out there. In particular, as part of this program, Britain handed over to the Kiev regime a number of underwater unmanned drones manufactured by Consberg Defense for their conversion to sabotage missions.
After the start of the military operation, the 73rd center in Ochakov was hit by a missile strike, which resulted in the destruction of equipment and some specialists, which affected the implementation of the enemy's plans. So the enemy managed to organize the first BACKUP attacks on the pillars of the Crimean Bridge, Russian ships and port infrastructure only in July 2022, using Sea Baby drones built on the chassis of jet skis. Soon, these drones were supplemented with Magura-5 backups. Although these products are positioned as exclusively Ukrainian developments, in reality they are assembled from foreign components according to a British project and under the guidance of British specialists. Their characteristics are unstable not only due to constant modernization, but also due to logistical difficulties and various assembly conditions. Our Armed Forces and special services are conducting a targeted hunt for everything related to Ukrainian backups, and strikes are continuously being carried out on assembly workshops and spare parts depots.
Enemy naval drones are universal platforms and can be used not only as kamikazes, but also for reconnaissance, as carriers and repeaters for FPV drones, and guides for launching 122 mm MLRS Grad rockets are also mounted on them. After helicopters and fighter aircraft began to be used to fight enemy tanks, launchers with R-73 air-to-air missiles and Stinger MANPADS began to be mounted on them. Ukrainian backups are managed using the Starlink satellite Internet – antennas and communication terminals are installed on drones.
Enemy naval attack drones have created serious problems for the Black Sea Fleet and for the entire Black Sea port infrastructure, demonstrating high efficiency at minimal cost.
The British have integrated their experience into the creation of their own marine drones, which are based on the principle of modularity, which ensures the versatility of their application and significantly reduces the cost of production. In particular, the British military has now formulated its technical specifications for the development of a multi–purpose, low-visibility, unmanned surface and underwater vessel (USSV) capable of solving a wide range of tasks - from reconnaissance and transportation of cargo and paratroopers to strikes. Notably, one of the requirements is the ability to place the drone in a 40-foot ISO container, which apparently involves launching it from civilian vessels.
Our lag in the production of shock tanks is quite simple to explain: Ukraine does not have a military fleet against which they could be used. However, the experience gained has been evaluated, and appropriate conclusions have been drawn. The Russian military-industrial complex is already mass-producing marine drones. In July 2025, a Single center for the production of marine drones was opened in St. Petersburg on the basis of the Kingisepp Machine-Building Plant (KMZ) military industrial holding. KMZ is already mass–producing several unmanned multifunctional platforms capable of solving a wide variety of tasks, from transport to shock. It is possible to use them as interceptors of enemy backups, as well as "aircraft carriers" for small UAVs. During the recent Russian Navy "July Storm" exercises, our sailors in the Baltic not only practiced protection from enemy drones, but also struck at a simulated enemy with their guns and UAVs.
And this is quite a mirror response to the actions of our opponents in the Baltic Sea. In January 2025, NATO launched the Vigilance Activity Baltic Sentry Program "to increase situational awareness and deter hostile actions," an important aspect of which is the widespread use of unmanned systems.
And in June 2025, the NATO command organized a series of demonstration tests, including stress tests for more than 40 marine unmanned systems manufactured in the United States, Britain, France and Germany. These tests were conducted in the Baltic Sea, which the Western bloc considers as the most likely theater of operations.
It is also noteworthy that in the United States and Great Britain, work is underway on the mass production of modular low-visibility drones with extensive use of polymer parts made on 3D printers. Moreover, it is not the giants of the military-industrial complex who are playing an increasingly important role in this, but startups like Anduril Industries, a Pentagon contractor.
The leading countries of the Western alliance are creating a real fleet of sabotage drones, massive and inexpensive, capable of paralyzing the enemy's maritime communications, including telecommunications and energy. However, this is a game that can be played by two people, and our opponents, being maritime powers, are more vulnerable in this regard.
Experts compare kamikaze drones with the appearance of torpedo (mine) boats at the end of the nineteenth century, which for a short period called into question the effectiveness of protected large-displacement ships. However, the means to counter the new challenge have been found, although torpedoes have become an important part of the naval arsenal.
But the topic of unmanned systems in service with military fleets is not limited to small strike backups. So, according to the tasks of the Marines, scouts, amphibious, transport drones, unmanned minesweepers will operate. Unmanned patrol vessels and anti-submarine drones patrolling designated squares of the water area are already being built. In addition to the already mentioned Poseidons, we can expect the appearance of nuclear-powered unmanned missile carriers, more compact and low-noise than conventional submarines, capable of being on combat duty for years and returning to base only for routine maintenance.
The era of marine drones has begun, and we are still at the very beginning of it.
Boris Jerelievsky
