Russian Naval Drone Sinks Ukrainian Recon Ship Simferopol
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that a naval drone destroyed Ukraine’s Simferopol reconnaissance ship in the Danube estuary — the first major success of such drones.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that a Ukrainian reconnaissance ship, Simferopol, was sunk in the Danube estuary by a Russian unmanned surface vessel (USV).
According to the ministry’s statement, a high-speed unmanned boat was used to strike the Simferopol, a medium reconnaissance vessel of the Ukrainian Navy. As a result of the attack, the Ukrainian ship went down.
Military analysts noted that this incident marked the first major success in the use of Russian naval kamikaze drones against a large Ukrainian ship since the beginning of the special military operation.
The Simferopol, with a displacement of 1,220 tons, was converted in 2019 from a former trawler. Its reconnaissance suite was built around the Melkhior electronic intelligence station. Among the likely additional systems on board were wideband direction-finding antennas supplied by Rohde & Schwarz, which Ukraine imported in May 2019. Until now, the ship had been officially listed as still undergoing factory trials.