New satellite imagery shows that russians have sunk at least five vessels near the damaged section of the Crimean Bridge in the Sea of Azov.
Presumably, those sunken vessels used to be old ferries. Now they might serve as the foundation laid for a new boom containment barrier against Ukrainian naval drones, suggests OSINT analyst H I Sutton.
Read more: Ukrainian Forces Struck on russian Brigade in Perevalne Village in Occupied Crimea
Defense Express would like to add some details in order to clarify the situation. First of all, let's define the boom containment. Basically, it is a chain of large booms no less than 1.5 meters (5 feet) in diameter which are supposed to disrupt waves and/or moving objects.
During World War I and World War II, boom barriers were used as one of the means of physical protection of naval bases. They are also deployed for civilian needs, such as to contain an oil spill or create wave-free sheltered waters in a certain area.
The russians have been using boom barriers since at least January this year in order to protect their ships from Ukrainian explosive boats. There was also the image clearly showing the barrier deployed to protect warships while they were reloaded with Kalibr cruise missiles.
The ferries were submerged right in front of the spot that was damaged by a drone attack coordinated by the Ukrainian Navy and SBU on July 17th. The repairs are still underway there, so there are two possible explanations as to why the vessels were sunk there. One is, as suggested by Sutton, to protect the vulnerable spot from further attacks, and the other is that russians wanted to erect a supportive structure to facilitate the repair works, so they made an improvised "offshore platform." Boom barrier, by the way, can also be deployed there, as an additional option.
Earlier Defense Express reported that the Ukrainian drone strike that caused such damage, was delivered by a sea drone with 850 kg of explosives. We also dove into why even a 30% successful it rate is enough to become a serious threat to the russian ships.
And for Ukraine, such a level of effectiveness is not troubling because it already has so many explosive suicide boats that a specialized brigade was created in the Ukrainian Navy.
Read more: russia Now Works Out Countering Maritime Drones Even in the Baltic Sea
