Naval drones could 'radically' change warfare, enabling smaller armies to 'turn the chessboard'

Pavlo Lakiychuk, a retired Ukrainian naval officer, said that naval strike drones could seriously change the approach to naval warfare, and they also give smaller fleets a chance to fight.

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Lakiychuk told the Kyiv Independent that naval drones pose a "serious" threat to the modern navies of major countries, which have spent billions on creating huge, supposedly "impenetrable" weapons. And for those states that lack the resources to build their own large oceanic fleets, "this is a chance to turn the chessboard upside down," he explained.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has made significant advances in naval warfare by modernising its naval drones. It was imperative for Ukraine to find a similar solution as it did not have its own navy. Such drones played a key role in the destruction of about a third of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the UK Ministry of Defence has previously stated. In addition, Ukraine used them to carry mines, which have so far damaged four Russian warships in the Black Sea.

Brigadier General Ivan Lukashevych, the chief ideologue of Ukraine's naval drone fleet, recently told The Journal that Ukraine now aims to deploy detachments of up to 20 naval unmanned aerial vehicles that can replicate the capabilities of a single warship.

Source: Kyiv Independent