Military milestone: Ukrainian naval drone sinks Russian kamikaze drone boat

军事里程碑：乌克兰海军无人艇击沉俄罗斯自杀式无人艇

In the world’s first clash of the drone boats, a Ukrainian naval drone destroyed a Russian explosive drone boat using a remote-controlled machine gun turret. This comes as the war in Ukraine has already seen widespread deployment of such uncrewed surface vessels in combat, along with swarms of flying attack drones and ground robots.

在世界首次无人艇对战中，一艘乌克兰海军无人艇利用遥控机枪塔摧毁了一艘俄罗斯爆炸性无人艇。随着乌克兰战争中此类无人水面艇（USV）在战斗中的广泛部署，以及飞行攻击无人机群和地面机器人的应用，这一事件应运而生。

The lopsided battle took place on September 12 when members of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence detected the Russian uncrewed surface vessel (USV) in the Black Sea and directed a Ukrainian Navy drone boat to intercept. The Russian vessel was “positively identified” as an Orcan surface drone with a “jet ski type steerable water jet” designed to ram targets and explode, according to naval analyst HI Sutton in Naval News.

这场一边倒的战斗发生在9月12日，当时乌克兰国防情报局成员在黑海发现了这艘俄罗斯无人水面艇（USV），并指挥一艘乌克兰海军无人艇进行拦截。据海军分析师 HI Sutton 在《海军新闻》（Naval News）上发表的文章称，这艘俄罗斯船只被“确认为”Orcan水面无人艇，配备有“摩托艇式可操纵喷水推进器”，旨在撞击目标并引爆。

Such Orcan drones have already been used to attack Ukrainian ports and ships. These often work in coordination with flying drones such as Russian Geran drones that provide aerial reconnaissance and can boost communication between drone operators and drone boats, Sutton explained.

Sutton解释说，此类Orcan无人艇此前已被用于攻击乌克兰的港口和船只。它们通常与飞行无人机（如俄罗斯Geran无人机）协同工作，后者提供空中侦察，并能增强无人机操作员与无人艇之间的通信。

In this case, the Russian drone was hunted down by a Ukrainian Sargan-3000 drone boat armed with a 12.7 mm machine gun mounted on a remote weapon station made by the Norwegian company Kongsberg. “It was inevitable that there would be USV-on-USV combat,” Sutton told New Scientist. “We have seen the same in the air and on the ground.”

在此次事件中，这艘俄罗斯无人艇被乌克兰的Sargan-3000无人艇追击并摧毁，该艇配备了一挺12.7毫米机枪，安装在挪威康士伯（Kongsberg）公司制造的遥控武器站上。“无人艇之间的战斗是不可避免的，”Sutton告诉《新科学家》（New Scientist）杂志，“我们在空中和地面上已经看到了同样的情况。”

The Ukrainian Navy released a video showing the Sargan-3000 firing upon the Russian drone from a distance of one kilometer, disabling the latter’s communications antenna before riddling the Russian drone until it sank, according to the Ukrainian government media platform United24.

据乌克兰政府媒体平台United24报道，乌克兰海军发布了一段视频，显示Sargan-3000在距离一公里的地方向俄罗斯无人艇开火，先是摧毁了后者的通信天线，随后将其打成筛子直至沉没。

Ukrainian media have described the Sargan-3000 drone as being able to reach speeds of 40 to 55 knots and travel up to 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) while carrying a payload of 450 kilograms (992 pounds), United24 reported. The multipurpose Ukrainian drone can also be equipped with an explosive payload for ramming attacks—the Ukrainian Navy claimed one such drone successfully struck and sank a Russian border patrol ship named the Izumrud in July 2026.

据United24报道，乌克兰媒体描述称，Sargan-3000无人艇的时速可达40至55节，航程可达1600公里（994英里），并能携带450公斤（992磅）的载荷。这种多用途乌克兰无人艇还可以配备爆炸载荷进行撞击攻击——乌克兰海军声称，2026年7月，一艘此类无人艇成功击中并击沉了一艘名为“祖母绿号”（Izumrud）的俄罗斯边境巡逻舰。

Ukraine has focused heavily on developing and deploying drone boats to wage asymmetric warfare against the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet of warships, sinking some and forcing the surviving ships to hunker down in port. Ukraine has also used a combination of aerial and surface drones to attack ships transporting sanctioned Russian oil and gas, along with targeting ships carrying supplies to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula that Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.

乌克兰一直专注于开发和部署无人艇，以对俄罗斯海军黑海舰队进行非对称作战，击沉了部分舰艇，并迫使幸存舰艇躲在港口内。乌克兰还结合使用空中和水面无人机，攻击运输受制裁俄罗斯石油和天然气的船只，并瞄准向俄罗斯占领的克里米亚半岛运送补给的船只（该半岛于2014年被俄罗斯从乌克兰手中夺取）。

Naval drone innovations have also extended to Ukraine using drone boats to deploy ground robots in amphibious assaults and using uncrewed surface vessels as motherships for launching FPV drones to attack Russian positions near the Black Sea. But Russia has similarly adapted by deploying its naval drones to go after Ukrainian targets—and Europe as a whole may face growing threats from such naval drones in the future.

海军无人艇的创新还延伸到乌克兰利用无人艇在两栖攻击中部署地面机器人，并将无人水面艇作为母舰，发射FPV无人机攻击黑海附近的俄罗斯阵地。但俄罗斯也采取了相应的调整，部署其海军无人艇来攻击乌克兰目标——未来，整个欧洲可能面临此类海军无人艇日益增长的威胁。

In August, a Russian drone boat loaded with explosives was disabled by a Romanian fighter jet after it drifted near a vital European natural gas platform in the Black Sea. Meanwhile, drone boats have also participated in the US-Israeli war with Iran. The US military’s drone boats made their combat debut by attacking an Iranian port facility in July, along with rescuing a pair of US Army pilots after their helicopter gunship was taken down by an Iranian flying Shahed drone near the contested Strait of Hormuz. However, such US military weapons are unlikely to seriously challenge Iran’s ability to threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

8月，一艘装载炸药的俄罗斯无人艇在漂流至黑海一处重要的欧洲天然气平台附近时，被一架罗马尼亚战斗机拦截并使其失效。与此同时，无人艇也参与了美以与伊朗之间的冲突。美国军方的无人艇于7月攻击了一处伊朗港口设施，完成了其战斗首秀；此外，在美军一架武装直升机在霍尔木兹海峡附近被伊朗“见证者”（Shahed）飞行无人机击落后，无人艇还参与营救了两名美军飞行员。然而，此类美军武器不太可能对伊朗在霍尔木兹海峡威胁航运的能力构成严重挑战。