AIBRIEF
A Ukrainian sea drone sank a Russian attack boat this month in what naval experts call the first documented engagement between uncrewed surface vessels.
The Ukrainian Navy released video this month showing a roughly seven-metre sea drone firing a 12.7 mm machine gun into a smaller Russian attack boat until it sank. Independent naval expert H. I. Sutton called it the first documented engagement between uncrewed surface vessels.
"It was inevitable that there would be USV-on-USV combat. We have seen the same in the air, and on the ground," Sutton told New Scientist.
The Ukrainian drone, identified as a Sargan-3000, is a roughly seven-metre gunboat-style platform capable of more than 80 km/h and armed with a heavy machine gun. The Russian Orcan is smaller, around five metres, slower at about 64 km/h, and built around an explosive charge with no turret. Sutton read the Orcan as built to ram a larger ship; the Sargan, to defend against one.
The encounter caps a documented arc. After losing its last major warship in early 2022, Ukraine built a sea-drone fleet that helped damage a Russian frigate and minesweeper at Sevastopol later that year and has since helped sink or damage roughly a third of Russia's Black Sea fleet. Russia fielded its own attack USVs from 2024, and the Orcan was, the report said, likely heading for Odesa when the two met.