I heard that what blew up the Kersch bridge this last time was basically a JetSki or Sea-Doo with its handlebars replaced with a control mechanism and packed with explosives, and that's really clever and relatively inexpensive. It's also small enough to build that I wonder if they solved the range issues by just having some infiltrated soldiers or even brave partisan civilian "fishermen" build and launch them from the occupied territories - maybe the one that blew up Kersch was even launched from Crimea itself.
I've seen much the same; although lately there's been some rumblings repeated on both sides, about a larger Sea-Doo drone variant, with longer range & different capabilities. Tha, or they've somehow significantly upgraded the original.
But seriously, bring back privateering on the Black Sea.
Ukrainian drone boats are showing up in places they have no rights showing up at.
I've heard everything from Ukraine has an off-the-books Kilo they are using for a mother ship (which is what the late 2022 naval maneuvers were all about), to USV's being dropped by low-flying cargo plane, to Turkey/Romania/Bulgaria is deploying them for Ukraine, to yes that Ukraine has a militarized cargo ship cammoed as a civie.
The Ukrainian navy has been very busy building up & training their green & brown-water assets, but have also been a lot more guarded about drone developments & capabilities than their marine & storm-unit brothers inland.
Even though their opsec is very tight, the other "trust me bro" is they've launched those drones far offshore, from some of those shiny new patrol boats & fast-attack craft so recently put into service. Which would make sense, given that the larger ones can't be used on the Dnipo as was intended. Those boats certainly aren't just being used for shoreline drive-bys & ferry duties.
Also, Russia has also shrunk back into their harbors & coastlines, under the cover of their shore & airborne radars; and when their own middle/patrol boats are berthed, their radars generally aren't turned on. At most they'll have CIWS & other short-range systems active (if functional). So with the resulting gaps in coverage, their radars also seem to have serious problems detecting threats like small, slow drones on the surface (or just above).
Recent examples of this were the seadoo drones headed towards Sevastopol just days before the Kerch strike (which were supposedly not spotted until seen visually by a helicopter inbound), and another was reported by a Russian fisherman (fishing where he technically shouldn't have been). Also of note were the interviews regarding a "shift" in their training with USN & other navies, along with active offshore patrols, rather than on the rivers. They've also taken a page from Iran, by stowing manpads on their fast boats, which would actually be pretty useful if done in numbers.
It's also interesting that it seems the Russians haven't been able to completely jam or interfere with the guidance on Ukrainian sea-drones. Things that make me go, hmmm.
But in any case, I should think it really wouldn't be that big of a deal to haul/roll one of those skidoo drones onto a large, twin-engine zodiac (etc) & drop it on the move, a lot closer to places like Kerch & Sevastopol; or possibly even dropping them from something like an Mi-8, if large enough gaps in Russian surveillance systems are identified (or created).
