Ukraine 'Sea Baby' Drones Attack Russian Ships With Flamethrowers

A naval ship's worst threat is fire, so Ukraine has designed a new naval drone - equipped with a flamethrower. JL 

Brendan Cole reports in Newsweek:

Ukraine showed "unique footage of combat between Ukrainian drones and Russian coastal ships—the first of such kind in history." Ukrainian forces used drones armed with flamethrowers against Russian ships. The Sea Baby carries a pay load of 1,900 pounds, is equipped with a $300,000 communication system and has a flamethrower system. The Sea Baby devices are being developed by engineers, IT specialists and naval personnel. "No private companies are involved in this." Another drone Kyiv is using is the Mamai, a kamikaze drone that can deliver a payload of 990 pounds of explosives.

Ukraine has released footage it says shows the dramatic moments its forces used drones armed with flamethrowers against Russian ships.

Ukrainian internal affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko has shared a clip he said showed "unique footage of combat between Ukrainian drones and Russian coastal ships—the first of such kind in history."

The 15-second video taken from a vessel shows flashes across the sky, with Gerashchenko writing, "when Ukrainian Sea Baby drones encountered Russian ships, they turned around and fired back using a flamethrower system."

 

It comes as Ukrainian media reported that the country's security service (SSU) had used Sea Baby drones to help restore the grain corridor in the Black Sea which has allowed the transport of Ukrainian products from the war zone.

 

RBC-Ukraine reported that the Sea Baby carries a pay load of 1,900 pounds, is equipped with a $300,000 communication system and has a flamethrower system.

In July 2023, Russia pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and subsequently bombed the Ukrainian port of Odesa, but Kyiv has managed to circumvent a blockade and continues to transport goods overseas.

 

Head of the SSU Vasyl Malyuk told Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda that Kyiv has started to increase the use of the drones for use at sea and that the Sea Baby devices are being developed by engineers, IT specialists and marine personnel. "No private companies are involved in this development," he told the outlet, according to a translation.

Malyuk said that the naval drones had been effective in delivering significant blows to Russia in the Black Sea region, such as the successful targeting of the Crimean Bridge in July 2023, the Russian landing ship Olenegorskiy Gornyak and the SIG tanker. The structure is also referred to as the Kerch Strait Bridge.

 

Drones have also attacked the Russian ships the Samum near the entrance to Sevastopol Bay in September and Pavel Derzhavin in October. There were also strikes on the military tugboat Nikolai Mura, and Moscow's newest reconnaissance and hydrographic ship, the Vladimir Kozitsky.

"We want to knock out all missile carriers from the Ukrainian Black Sea," Malyuk told Ukrainska Pravda, "and then we will turn our attention to submarines." Another drone Kyiv is using is the Mamai, a kamikaze drone that can deliver a payload of 990 pounds of explosives to any point in the Black Sea.

The attacks came as Russia continued to pound Ukraine with missiles and drones during strikes in the hours leading up to New Year's Eve, according to Kyiv, with at least six missiles hitting the eastern city of Kharkiv.

 

Ukrainian border guards released a video of an attack by Russian drones on Odesa Oblast on New Year's Eve which were shot down by air defenses.

This followed an attack on the Russian border city of Belgorod, which came a day after an 18-hour aerial barrage across Ukraine killed at least 41 civilians.