3 years ago, in the summer of 2022, four Ukrainian engineers built the countries first maritime drone. Built in great secrecy, that innovative vessel has not been reported until now. This is the vessel which changed naval history and ushered in the new era of drone warfare at sea.
Russia’s decision to forgo the customary Navy Day parades of warships on July 27 is in no small part because of the threat of Ukrainian drones. Ukraine’s diminutive uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) have wrestled Sea Control from the much larger Russian Navy in the Black Sea. They hold Russian warships and logistics at threat. So much so, that Russia’s Black Sea fleet has barely left port in over a year. And now Russia is copying Ukraine’s initiative, fielding similar USVs of their own.
The story of Ukrainian USVs started in the summer of 2022, just months after Russia’s full scale invasion. In this exclusive, Naval News can, for the first time, share tantalising evidence of the first Ukrainian naval drones.
The Birth Of A Legend
A major Ukrainian USV, gaining household recognition, is the Magura V5. This tiny craft, barely 5.5 meters (18 feet) long, has been responsible for sinking several Russian warships including the missile corvette Ivanovets on Jan 31 2024 and landing ship Caesar Kunikov on Feb 14 2024. But the V5 did not appear until 2023. Before that there were, as the designation suggests, four earlier designs.
The Magura V1 was developed in Ukraine in the early summer of 2022. It started in May, only a month after the sinking of the Russian cruiser Moskva, widely seen as the first sign that Russia wasn’t going to get the naval war entirely their own way. The Ukrainian team, just four engineers, was tasked by the Secret Service of Ukraine to “do something with enemy fleet.”
The team conceived of building small USVs to take the war to the Russian Navy. They had only a fishing boat to build with, but more importantly, they soon had Starlink. The impact of Starlink, or rather reliable, affordable, high-data, low-signature two-way communications, cannot be overstated. Others had built weaponized uncrewed vessels before, notably the Iranians, but those had always been limited by short range communications. Now the Ukrainian drones could rely on human pilots, safely ashore, hundreds of miles behind the action.
The Magura V1 had a 6 meter (19 foot) hull with a modest outboard motor. The hull was cut down lower and the open deck was covered over with a ridge running along the centreline. This gave it an incredibly low profile; the largest object sticking up was the outboard at the stern.
The First Big Attack
Trials of the V1 were successful enough that the purpose-designed V2 was quickly developed. Surprisingly perhaps, the ‘V’ in the designation refers to the deep-Vee hull rather than ‘version’. The number is sequential however. The V2 switched to a jet-ski propulsion with onboard motor, giving it a lower profile overall. The hull has been described as canoe-like, and has a smooth rounded upper fuselage with distinctive breakwaters across the deck.
On Oct 29 2022 the world woke up to the potential of USVs to bloody the nose of much larger and more powerful navies. A squadron of improved Magura V3 (later reports naming them as ‘Mykola’ were in error) raced into Sevastopol Harbour on Crimea’s south western tip. The naval base, Russia’s most important in the Black Sea, was heavily defended. The USVs got through, hitting several warships and penetrating deep inside the harbour. The enemy ships weren’t sunk, not everything worked as planned, but it was clear that Ukraine was onto something.
The Magura V3 was a slightly larger design otherwise similar to the V2. It was a production ready version able to be built in some numbers in secret workshops in Ukraine. The main external differentiator is that it has three, rather than two, breakwaters on the forward bow. Below these, buried in the hull, was an approximately 150kg (300lb) warhead.
Beyond The Magura V3
The main variant known about is the V5, which followed the experimental V4. This features a fuller hull to accommodate more fuel and a larger warhead. People familiar with the details tell us that Magura USVs have destroyed at least 17 naval targets and damaged 3 more. This is significantly more than other designs.
The V5 has been followed by the larger W6 – W standing for whaler hull, as in the famous Boston Whaler boat. This provides a much wider platform, and the type was first observed with two AA-11 Archer air-air missiles on it, a form of ‘FrankenSAM’. The W6 can have either an inboard or outboard motor, and can also be used for ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance). The W6 has been followed by the even larger V7, which is best known for shooting down a Russian Flanker fighter with a Sidewinder missile.
Ukraine now has many USV types, some supplied by allies but many built locally. Magura has competition, but all the USVs owe something the humble Magura V1 built out of a fishing boat three years ago.
