Two Russian naval patrol vessels are destroyed in a new video in the Black Sea.
Two Russian Navy Raptor class patrol boats seem to have been destroyed in the Black Sea. The attacks were attributed to a Ukrainian-operated, Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone. The attack occurred just after sunrise, 20 miles off the Ukrainian coast, near the now-famous Snake Island: This may be the first time the TB2 has been used to sink naval vessels in a fight. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the boats were high-speed assault vessels of the Swedish CB90 class.
The TB2 drone has already established itself as a trademark weapon of the Ukraine conflict, bolstered by a dedicated propaganda effort. There has been attrition in the battle so far, with the Russian side making detailed claims of TB2 kills and confirming the loss of at least seven instances. The Ukrainian military and US defense authorities have said that a pair of domestically built Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles sank the Russian Navy’s cruiser Moskva. Additionally, there were unsubstantiated rumors that TB2 was engaged in some manner.
Monitoring the ship’s position or even supplying targeting data. Ukraine previously claimed to have successfully destroyed a Raptor class boat with an anti-tank missile fired from the land. Ukraine claims that it conducted attacks on Russian ships in the Black Sea, sinking two Tupolev warships. The occurrence is noteworthy for various reasons, not the least of which is the proximity to Snake Island: This indicates vulnerabilities in Russia’s sea air defenses, which have almost certainly widened in the aftermath of the loss of the Moskva and her massive anti-air weapons.
