On Wednesday, September 3, the Ukrainian Navy released a video showing the destruction of a russian high-speed boat in Kherson region. The vessel was ferrying an enemy airborne unit to the Tendrivska Spit. According to the Navy, the strike eliminated seven occupiers and wounded four more.
The most notable detail in the footage is that both target detection and engagement were carried out by a Turkish Bayraktar TB2 reconnaissance-strike UAV, which most likely used Roketsan's MAM-L guided munitions. At the same time, it is worth recalling that Ukraine has recently developed its own guided aerial bombs, which can also be integrated with the TB2.
Read more: Baykar's Bayraktar Drone Is Back, Ukraine Unleashes Iconic Drone on russian Boat (Video)
Another important point is that this is the second video in recent weeks featuring strikes by Bayraktar TB2 drones, even though such footage has been rare in recent years.
In August, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine released a video of a TB2 strike against a russian boat near temporarily occupied Zaliznyi Port in Kherson region. At that time, officials specified that the target had been hit with a missile, the type of which we analyzed in a separate report.
Of course, two videos alone do not indicate that Bayraktar TB2s are actively returning to the battlefield as strike assets rather than solely reconnaissance platforms. Still, even limited use of the drone in combat roles is noteworthy.
This is particularly significant given that Ukraine's Defense Forces appear to have systematically worked to make such missions possible by suppressing russian air defense systems — interestingly, also through the use of unmanned technologies.
For example, earlier this year it was confirmed that Ukrainian forces in Kherson region have been combining naval drones with FPV drones to destroy russian air defense assets, particularly the Pantsir-S1 system.
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