Ukraine Uses Fixed-Wing Loitering Strike Drone To Target Russian Warship At Sea

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Note: The following text was originally posted on my X/Twitter account.

While Ukraine's successful employment of two seemingly sea-launched—from Ukrainian USVs in the Black Sea—fixed-wing human-in-the-loop loitering strike drones against a Russia Project 21631/Buyan-M corvette in the Sea of Azov will receive a lot of attention as an early documented case of the employment of such uncrewed aircraft-turned munitions in the anti-ship role, the incident also draws attention to the absurdity that was and remains the so-called "Kalibrization" of the Russian Navy over the course of the 2010s. Since February 2022, the Russian warships and submarines that are capable of launching 3M54 Kalibr land-attack cruise missiles leave port, launch a handful of Kalibr cruise missiles, and then immediately return to port to rearm. Given the military-geographical context of the Russia-Ukraine War, Russia would be better off installing a vertical launch system on the ground in Crimea or elsewhere—the Kalibr has sufficient range to target any part of Ukraine and can be programmed to fly over the Black Sea if that approach is advantageous. As the threat posed by Ukrainian USVs in the Black Sea increased, some Russian warships "retreated" to the Sea of Azov, where sporadic Kalibr cruise missile launch activity continues (sporadic as a result of the limited supply of such cruise missiles). See: https://x.com/shahpas/status/1929195837264892117

The inefficiencies of Russia's employment of ship- and submarine-launched Kalibr land-attack cruise missiles parallel the inefficiencies of Russia's employment of air-launched Kh-101 land-attack cruise missiles with its fleet of bomber aircraft, which I covered in a recent post: https://x.com/shahpas/status/1961164592186278103