Ukraine is known to have set as its main Objective Objective the destruction of the Russian fleet in Crimea, constantly upgrading the threat against it, with extensive use of USV swarms combined with drones and missiles launched from air and land.
New Ukrainian USV equipped with thermobaric Schmel missiles threatens the Russian Black Sea fleet
Recently it seems that Ukraine wanting to bleed Russia has undertaken the construction of a USV carrying "thermobaric" missiles, as reported in a related article by International Media pointing out:
"Ukraine's kamikaze drones are now firing missiles, according to photos and videos appearing on Ukrainian social media.
The heavy suicide surface drones Sea Baby (USV) was seen carrying four Schmel thermobaric missile launchers on its rear towards the engine.
Ukraine's State Security and Intelligence Service (SBU) has described it as a qualitative and technological development that threatens the Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) around Crimea.
Kiev consistently introduced a number of USV kamikazes into the unmanned warfare launched in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in late 2022, scoring some notable tactical successes when it began to combine it with air strikes.
So far it has caused very serious damage to two landing ships and destroyed the BSF headquarters in Sevastopol ,with Storm Shadow cruise missiles fired from the air.
Recently, it even claimed to have sunk a 370-foot long landing ship, the Novocherkassk, with the Russian Ministry of Defence (RuMoD) then claiming to have shot down two Ukrainian Su-24 aircraft that carried out the attack.
But the deployment of missile launchers marks a credible advance, which exacerbates the threat.
Russian warships will now be forced to destroy the USVs much earlier, at least before they line up in line of sight to launch guided rockets.
The "Sea Baby" is Ukraine's most versatile USV
Citing Ukrainian designers and SBU officials, reports from the country state that the Sea Baby "is not only a naval kamikaze drone" but also a "modular, multi-purpose platform on which various types of drones are mounted".
It is not clear whether the Shmel launchers have been installed on existing Sea Baby USV units or on a new batch.
Two other unidirectional attack USVs in the SBU arsenal are the Mamai and the Magura V5.
Ukrainian TV channel TCH news showed six tubes (three on either side of the rear, above the engine). Later footage from Sea Baby's electro-optical system showed the front of the craft and the missiles some distance behind it.
The "new generation" of Ukrainian USVs has "increased the explosive payload from 108 to 850 kilograms", with "better" communication systems increasing the cost to over $300,000 and the vessel being made of radar-evading material and "many other innovative solutions."
Ukraine's navy is increasing its capabilities
The RPO-A Shmel is a Russian-made thermobaric missile launcher.
The one in the Sea Baby could potentially be its analogue produced in Ukraine, the RPV-16.
Thermobaric warheads explode by absorbing and burning the surrounding oxygen, producing a much hotter, incendiary blast and a visible "shock wave" that can destroy powerful structures.
Both weapons are described as "flamethrowers".
Firing missiles from a distance still has some chance of hitting the intended target, however if one hits a ship, the powerful thermogravimetric explosion can cause secondary explosions of fuel or ammunition on it, destroying it"
The Ukrainians "show us the way" for the Aegean and SE Mediterranean
The Ukrainians are showing us the way for the effectiveness of maritime drones (USVs) in the Aegean and SE Mediterranean.
On the pressing issue of IMMEDIATE purchase in large numbers of UAV-UCAV-USV-DRONES KAMIKAZI from our country we have reported in over ten articles over the last 2 years.
Let us envision the picture where against speedboats filled with Turkish marines moving towards the coast of one of our islands, UAV and USV are launched en masse.
The results will be devastating both in terms of casualties and the morale of the attacking Turks.
We should also realize that UCAV - USV give us the possibility of attacking, depending on their range, military and non-military targets, both on the coast of Asia Minor and inside Turkey.
It is better for Greece to have 1 less F-16 fighter aircraft, which according to recent purchase prices from Bulgaria 1 American F-16 BLOCK70, costs together with its weapons systems about 200 million dollars and with the same money to buy 200 UCAV about or 800 USV.
We say this since according to current prices, for example, a Turkish Bayraktar costs about $1 million, so UCAV prices of similar capabilities of allied states will not deviate significantly, while a Ukrainian UCV costs $250,000.
Greece, with the number of islands, intermediate islands, islets and islets in the Aegean, needs to have in its arsenal a plethora of weapons systems of high accuracy and lethality in order to counter Turkish aggression.
The UAV kamikaze and USV, in addition to the above characteristics, have as additional advantages the low cost of construction and the possibility to integrate in the framework of the popular defence as fighters after a short training and our civilian population in the Aegean Sea.
