DRAMATIC new footage shows Ukraine’s “Sea Baby” marine drones using on-board machine guns to pound and damage Russian military helicopters in a ferocious battle.
Watch as the armed drones also shoot at Russia‘s Su-30SM warplanes during the battle in Kerch Bay, close to Vladimir Putin‘s £3 billion Crimean Bridge.
Footage shows the Sea Baby drones firing at Russian helicopters and warplanes swooping in the skies above[/caption]
The Sea Baby drones are unmanned and can be equipped with a range of weapons[/caption]
The Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) unveiled the first combat footage of the next-generation Sea Baby drones in October 2024[/caption]
Footage from the view of the unmanned Ukrainian attack boats – first deployed in 2022 – shows the scopes being trained on airborne Russian helicopters and planes.
The video shakes violently as Ukrainian soldiers remotely spray rounds of bullets at the aircraft swooping in the skies above.
The Ukrainian SBU security service said today that intercepted Russian communications suggested the Sea Babies had left Russian soldiers “dead and wounded” on the Mi-8 helicopters.
A SBU statement said: “The Russian pilots considered themselves hunters and counted on easy hunting, but they became the prey, because the naval drones opened fire in return,”
“The latest Sea Baby [drones] were equipped with large-calibre machine guns with ballistic programmes for automatic guidance and auto-capture of targets.
“Intercepted Russian radio communications indicate that there are dead and wounded on board the helicopters.
“The helicopters themselves received significant damage and now require major repairs.”
The battle happened on December 5 and 6 and was the first major drone attack in five months close to Putin’s Crimean Bridge – which Ukraine has vowed to destroy.
The bridge links Russia to the occupied Crimean peninsula and is a key military supply route.
Russia said it ultimately destroyed six sea drones but did not acknowledge its own losses.
The Ukrainian statement continued: “SBU drones also hit a barge carrying military equipment and equipment for repairing the Crimean Bridge, which the occupiers are still unsuccessfully trying to restore after previous bombings by Ukrainian special services.”
The upgraded Sea Baby drone “can carry various weapons – multiple launch rocket systems, flying drones and heavy machine guns.
“The main thing is that it has once again proven its effectiveness.”
The SBU stated: “The results of our work are actually much more than we can show now, but everything has its time.”
Unlike Kamikaze drones that blow up near enemy targets, the advanced Sea Baby drones are designed to attack and return to the battlefield to fight another day.
With a range of up to 1,000km, these advanced drones can be seen hitting long-range targets with accuracy while defending themselves from being damaged by enemy attacks.
Military bosses are understood to have assembled a team of specialists from across the fields to ramp up the production of these drones.
And they are being made in “underground” factories which Putin’s missiles cannot reach.
On July 17, 2023, two Sea Baby USVs were used to strike the Crimean Bridge and were successful in damaging it.
A CGI recreation of the unmanned Sea Baby drones[/caption]