Ukraine attacks Crimean Bridge with Poland's latest unmanned Gavia boats

A Russian Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jet and a Mi-8 helicopter entered into combat with unmanned boats of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as they were attempting to attack the Crimean Bridge.

The Military Observer Telegram channel published a video of the attack that was shot from Ukrainian unmanned boats. A Mi-8 helicopter gets into the thermal imaging sight shooting off heat traps. The boats unsuccessfully try to respond by attacking the helicopter with machine gun and rocket fire. A Su-30SM then appears in the frame attacking the boats from a wing gun.

The attack on the bridge was repelled.

On December 6, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched six unmanned boats at Russia, all of which were destroyed. The Security Service of Ukraine claimed responsibility for the attack and said that a group of Sea Baby sea drones engaged in combat with Russian helicopters, aircraft, and Raptor patrol boats on December 6 overnight.

Ukraine used Poland's Gavia unmanned boats for the attack on the Crimean Bridge for the first time. The boats were tested in mid-November. The Russian Armed Forces obliterated the drones. Ukraine used several types of unmanned boats at a time: fast reconnaissance drones, cover drones with machine guns and thermal imagers, and attack drones, such as the Magura-V5 and Sea Baby unmanned boats.

An analysis of the drone wreckage showed that they were part of Poland's state-of-the-art Gavia submersible autonomous system. The system was developed by Enamor under license from the American Teledyne Technologies.

Details

The Crimean Bridge, also called Kerch Strait Bridge or Kerch Bridge, is a pair of parallel bridges, one for a four-lane road and one for a double-track railway, spanning the Kerch Strait between the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar Krai in Russia and the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea. Built by the Russian Federation after its annexation of Crimea at the start of 2014, the bridge cost ₽227.92 billion (US$3.7 billion) and has a length of 19 km (12 mi), making it the longest bridge in Europe and the longest bridge ever constructed by Russia.