{"id":550306,"date":"2025-11-05T08:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T08:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/550306\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T08:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T08:34:14","slug":"fw-mag-future-warfare-magazine-shownews-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/550306\/","title":{"rendered":"FW-MAG Future Warfare Magazine – shownews"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU)<\/strong> has unveiled two new variants<\/strong> of its SEA BABY Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One version is equipped with a 10-tube Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS)<\/strong> for 122 mm GRAD rockets<\/strong>, primarily intended for strikes against coastal targets<\/strong> or slow-moving and anchored vessels<\/strong>. The rockets have a maximum range of around 40 km<\/strong>, but dispersion \u2014 worsened by the platform\u2019s natural motion and the absence of a stabilized firing system \u2014 is significant, making precision bombardment impossible<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The second variant<\/strong> features a stabilized Remote Weapon Station (RWS)<\/strong> mounting a 12.7 mm machine gun<\/strong>, paired with a sophisticated optronic system<\/strong> for target detection, recognition, and automatic tracking<\/strong>. Combined with a ballistic computer<\/strong>, this enables accurate engagement of moving targets<\/strong>. This version is likely designed to serve as a point-defense or anti-aircraft unit<\/strong> within a USV strike formation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

According to the SBU, both variants participated in the 3 June 2025 attack on the Kerch Bridge<\/strong>, which connects occupied Crimea<\/strong> to Russia\u2019s Krasnodar region<\/strong>. However, the actual damage was limited<\/strong>, and evidence suggests the strike was instead carried out using explosive charges placed by divers or underwater drones<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Among other notable upgrades are a new propulsion system<\/strong> and a new navigation and control suite<\/strong>. The SEA BABY remains remotely piloted<\/strong> via a low-latency satellite link<\/strong>, rather than fully autonomous. Compared to early models, the operational range has tripled<\/strong> \u2014 from 300 to 900 nautical miles (550\u20131,660 km)<\/strong> \u2014 and the payload capacity has increased to nearly 2 tons<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Since late 2023<\/strong>, SEA BABY USVs have evolved from traditional kamikaze drones<\/strong> into multi-role platforms<\/strong>, capable of carrying a wide range of armaments<\/strong>. Configurations have included: infrared-guided<\/strong> R-73 (AA-11 Archer) surface-to-air missiles<\/strong>, 2<\/strong><\/strong> MN-103 MANTA naval mines<\/strong>, 6<\/strong><\/strong> RPV-16 thermobaric RPGs<\/strong> with an <\/strong>effective range of 300 m<\/strong><\/strong> (and up to <\/strong>1,000 m for area fire<\/strong><\/strong>),<\/strong> or six 122 mm rockets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A SEA BABY armed with a stabilized 14.5 mm KPVT heavy machine gun<\/strong> was already used in December 2024<\/strong> during a skirmish against a Russian helicopter<\/strong>. That system, however, employed a much simpler targeting suite<\/strong>, lacking autonomous detection and tracking capabilities<\/strong>. The same drone \u2014 damaged in combat \u2014 has since been displayed outside the Ukrainian Museum of the History of the Second World War<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ukraine has also developed several variants of its other well-known USV, the MAGURA V5<\/strong>: initially a kamikaze drone<\/strong>, followed by the V6<\/strong>, armed with R-73 air-to-air missiles<\/strong>; the V7<\/strong>, equipped with AIM-9M SIDEWINDER missiles<\/strong>; and finally a \u201cdrone-carrier\u201d version<\/strong> capable of deploying four FPV attack UAVs<\/strong> from a dedicated internal bay.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Throughout the war, USV <\/strong>operations have enabled Ukraine to<\/strong> strike 11 Russian naval vessels<\/strong>, and reportedly shoot down <\/strong>at least<\/strong> <\/strong>2<\/strong><\/strong> Su-30 <\/strong>fighters and <\/strong>1<\/strong><\/strong> Mi-8 <\/strong>helicopter<\/strong>, forcing nearly the entire Russian Black Sea Fleet<\/strong> to relocate from Sevastopol (Crimea) to Novorossiysk<\/strong> \u2014 thereby securing a safer maritime corridor for grain exports<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(Photo: SBU)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Follow us on\u00a0Telegram<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0X<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has unveiled two new variants of its SEA BABY Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV).…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[176386,10242,2000,299,176388,36646,176385,176390,176387,332,176389,176391,176384,657,35709],"class_list":{"0":"post-550306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-aim-9","9":"tag-black-sea","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-grad","13":"tag-magura","14":"tag-magura-v5","15":"tag-mlrs","16":"tag-r-73","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-rws","19":"tag-sbu","20":"tag-sea-baby","21":"tag-ukraine","22":"tag-usv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115496175314408089","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}