Ukraine has unveiled a deadly new set of drone boats which it plans to use to devastating effect against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The kamikaze Stalker 5.0 vehicle has a 372-mile operational range and can race at speeds of 46mph over the sea thanks to its 60-horsepower speedboat engine.
Ukrainian officials first made details of the unmanned vessel, which can carry explosive payloads of up to 150kg, public at the Black Sea Security Forum.
It is five metres long and 1.2 metres wide and has enough range to target the Kerch bridge between occupied Crimea and mainland Russia – officials said.
Equipped with a Starlink satellite internet terminal, the boat’s drone relays a live video feed back to its operator.
The kamikaze Stalker 5.0 vehicle has a 372-mile operational range and can race at speeds of 46mph over the sea thanks to its 60-horsepower speedboat engine
Ukrainian officials first made details of the unmanned vessel, which can carry explosive payloads of up to 150kg, public at the Black Sea Security Forum
The boat also has a logical mode and can deliver food, water, military and medical supplies to hard-to-reach locations – as well as being used for reconnaissance and coastal patrols.
This could play an important role in helping Ukrainian forces on the right bank of the Dnipro River, where it has become increasingly hard to resupply marines with conventional boats as they attempt to hold the Krynky bridgehead.
One of the main successes of the Ukranian efforts to repel the Russian invasion has been their fast-evolving maritime drones.
The Russian navy has been forced to flee the Black Sea after Ukraine’s SBU security services and its HUR military intelligence agency used a combination of different unmanned vessels to sink their best warships.
In March, one of Putin’s most modern warships, The $65mn Sergey Kotov, which only came into service in 2022, was reportedly struck by an exploding kamikaze sea drone attack near Feodosia, in occupied Crimea.
A month prior to this attack, footage shared by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence showed how its unmanned seafaring vessels sunk the £55 million Black Sea missile ship Ivanovets.
These efforts have allowed Ukraine to reopen a grain shipping corridor vital for the country’s economic survival.
However, The SBU’s stand out attack remains its experimental kamikaze drone hit on Vladimir Putin’s £3 billion bridge linking Russia to Crimea, which triggered a huge explosion.
Ukraine destroys Russian Ivanovets missile carrier ship
Footage purports to show the ship under fire in Crimea, the latest blow to the Russian fleet
Separate footage footage released by the SBU and Ukrainian sources showed the scale of the explosion from other angles as the ‘Sea Baby’ strike hit the crossing which has separate road and rail links
Their ‘Sea Baby’ drone saw huge explosions rip through the 12-mile crossing in July 2023 and temporarily severed a key military supply route between Crimea and mainland Russia.
Footage shows the naval kamikaze drone armed with up to 850kg of explosives sailing towards the bridge under the cover of darkness before it smashed into the crossing, sending debris flying through the air.
Since that strike, Russian coastal targets have been bombarded with new iterations of the drones, including versions with mobile grad rocket launchers.
Putin’s forces have built unconventional defences, including floating booms and layers of netting, around the Kerch bridge in response to these attacks and hope these efforts will prevent future drone strikes.