Ukraine's Grad Rocket-Firing Sea Drones
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Ukraine's unmanned surface vessels (drone boats) continue to evolve with a newly confirmed variant equipped with six 122mm Grad rocket tubes. In this video we take a look at how they might be employed.
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Thanks for watching, check out our accompanying article for this video here -
armourersbench.com/2024/05/24/ukraines-grad-rocket-armed-sea-drones/ - Matt
Not sure what the rocket firing system is for the helicopter based is but might be what the smaller rocket salvos be. The advantage of using a boat hull in this matter is pretty well nigh obvious as a boat hull can carry an awesome amount of weight without the complexity of an air frame or vehicle chassis. As far as becoming an outright arsenal ship something the US Navy played around with on a modest scale during World War 2 in the Pacific 1942-1945 and later the Korean War this is very modest even compared to that but may be scalable and much easier to validate given how close the Russian enemy is to literally everything and everyone....all the time even...so even Salvo fire can be surprisingly devastating of unguided rockets by Ukraine against Russia. Establishing freedom of movement is everything in real World combat operations and I find it remarkable Ukraine with attendant Allies determination to effect with if this be any example very much "positive"(effective?) effect. War is an awful thing and has always been for Ukraine a last resort. How this matter became a first resort for Putin Russia still remains and I imagine will forever remain a mystery...but Russia continues to make this so so Ukraine still must find a way to defend. This is a highly effective means insodoing that will only grow perhaps dramatically so over time. Swedish, French, British Royal Navies obviously of course watching this development very closely.
Sea baby is GRADuating.
😂😂😂🎉
hon hon hon
😂😂😂
Two observations: First, accuracy can be greatly improved by using inclination sensors as commonly found on drones, navigation units etc. and simply delaying launch until the boat's inclination is within minute of good enough - that's a 1 hour Arduino project for a competent hobbyist. After launch however the Seababy will be operating blind, because any optics will be coated with a thick layer of Grad fart.
You can close a camera. I don’t think that’s the problem.
It misses on land its practically useless on sea lol no amount sensor cope is gonna fix accuracy
This grand roket Even in a stable position it can still Missed 25 meters
the way this is used it doesn't need to be precise just forward it will hit the length of the ship when pointed at the side profile of the ship
@@meteorknight999 this is proven in combat and we're putting EFP's in the warheads so it shoots a liquid metal jet at the ships to puncture them and cause flooding as well as napalm type warheads or HE
*You can interpret the title as the Grad rockets are firing sea drones.*
*That's definitely badass.*
i was very confused for a second
I had actually envisioned some ground vehicle based GRAD rockets deploying multiple sea drones into the sea..
that's what i thought was going on, some sort of switchblade style sea drone
Unemployed sea drones will only turn to crime to provide for their sea drone families
there are drones aerial and submersible that are rocket shaped they could be fired we modified the ac-130 to have similar tubes to send out aerial loitering munitions that are rocket shaped
funny enough, united24 once asked for input of ideas how to improve the sea drones here on YT community section.
i mentioned unguided rockets, rather thinking of something like zuni to react to barriages or forcing ship gunners to take cover, sort of penetration aid. that spilled a debate with someone who would rather like to see machine guns on it. but i pointed on effectiveness (bang for the buck) and that it has to be fired when the vessel is leveled on a wavy sea. elevation is the critical point here. you dont want to fire it into civilian infrastructure or into water just in front of it. this could be archieved by firing it electronically if trigger is connected to a sensor.
so now i am popping a beer to cheer this. made my day, especially because kinburn is the place i'd like to visit most in ukraine in future.
Perhaps mounting a Hydra pod would be similar but larger magazine load.
@@jg2072 absolutely, and they might be more accurate cause closer on a one way mission, you could pass multiple targets and at least cause a lot of chaos to smaller targets. like tug boats or the facilities around it that are not worth a cruise missile or anti ship warhead.
those with grad may return to base for reload though. slightly different application but nice to see things being done domestically.
That does make some sense. Now, it seems like those supporting helicopters are begging to be punished.
You can visit the Russian Crimea at anytime
@@americafirst3738 failing in geography is an american thing right? kinburn isnt crimea , its kherson oblast.
My only issue with equipping Sea Drones with Grad Rockets is the unbelievable inaccuracy of Grad Rockets. I think it'd be more useful to equip them with torpedoes or something else. Something eith guided missiles would be better imo
Inaccurate, increasing radar reflection... Why? Why do this nonsense?
There are off the shelf guidance kits and fully assembled weapons for 122mm "grad" rockets available from both Turkish and Israeli companies, and Ukraine conducted tests of their own guided 122mm rocket.
cost. this is a cheap mod that they can afford. the ukrainians would probably like a US aircraft carrier and a full armament of f-35s but what they want aint what they are getting.
people have suggest brimstone
@@colson3050 why aren't they getting that, if this is an existential fight for Europe?
BAE's laser guided rocket kit would be a good addition as well as it could engage both ground targets, sea targets and helicopters.
e.g. Google
Ground-launched precision with the APKWS laser-guided rocket l BAE Systems
Also for Grad launchers an inertial navigation sensor to sense when the boat is level could be used to prevent firing until the craft is level and thus improve accuracy.
We need to dream bigger, it would be cool to see brimstone sea baby's, brimstone has a millimeter wave seeker that could seek targets with no lasing of the target, and could be fired in bad weather or low visibility, and while its warhead is relatively small compared to that of a anti ship missile, multiple strikes could cause serious headaches for smaller Russian vessels
Ukraine successfully tested laser guided grad rockets before the war...
@@kschleic9053why isnt it winning then ? It landed on mars before war too if arent having serious discussion
Brimstone 2 would be ideal with its self guidance ability. It has a relatively small warhead though but it’s in a similar payload class as Grad. It would be nightmare for Russian patrol boats.
The issue is the price.
What I'm curious to know is how they manage to get some semblance of accuracy while even in light seas.
Fires straight ahead, no recoil. All rockets go simultaneously. Low angle means short range. Reduced propellant would give even shorter range / greater accuracy. It's summer, in the Dnipro estuary, it will often be calm.
@@DavidOfWhitehillseven calm seas are not calm. A ship gun has lot of moving parts to stabilize the gun. An unguided rocket with no stabilization would be based purely on luck.
Would be different if it's guided though.
laser guidance is a bless
The first image looks like one of those "name one thing on this picture" images.
what do you mean?
@@Mykha_panda My brain could not recognize any single thing on it. I saw some wheels and tubes but could not grasp what it was about. Maybe I was tired.
Thanks again, Matt. It'll be interesting to see what weapons next get integrated on SeaBaby.
Thank you!
The variant with guided missiles seems far more useful, but I do see the value of a simple, low risk, shoot and scoot vehicle. Hopefully they're more effective than they would theoretically seem.
Sea launched Grad rockets don't seem like they'd hit the broad side of a barn from any distance due to the wave rocking, so I think these are just the sea-drone equivalent of Pocket Sand.
Idk if putting guided missiles on them would make sense from a force economy POV. Having it drive a fire & forget anti-ship missile or GMLRS or something into range would be cool, but would it make sense doctrinally to have a missile that costs more than the drone?
40 countries are throwing billions then but guided missiles for small boats need economic pov ? there is corruption and someone took the money didnt they
My guess is, that the primary role of the Grad rockets are to supress fire from the targeted ship, to inrease the probability that one or more kamikaze sea-drones will hit the ship directly. The fire from these rocket launchers will obviously be quite inacurate; but might still be enough to make machine-gunners on the ship seak cover.
If the drone is a suicide drone I think these rockets could be pretty deadly when launched from close range while the drone gets closer to blow itself up.
Is a rocket even accurate from a boat without targeting systems?
They have a laser guidance system. Remember all the trucks with like 3-4 122mm tubes. Same thing but on a boat.
A USV with grad rockets doesn't look like it could cause that much damage, but perhaps that's not the point. Just sowing chaos among enemy forces can be very valuable too. Harassment like this has been a part of warfare since ancient times. It doesn't need to do much damage. As long as it diverts more resources than it takes to conduct these strikes and impedes the enemy's ability to execute their own plans, it works.
First War Archive's 1-hour long Battle of The Black Sea analysis and now Armourer's Bench reviewing the Grad USVs? OP today.
Damn, u came from his video aswell? Just watched his and saw this one right after😂😂
The algorithm is truly blessing us. Thanks for watching guys
Excellent episode, as always. Well done, mate.
I'm very impressed with what Ukraine have managed to do with jetskis and radio controllers.
I wonder if maybe the next evolution will go lower detectability or higher defensive Loadout. And as always, network lag can be an absolute bastard. I think work on small network node drones being launched in huge swarms of low visibility drones will likely be necessary, because as great as starlink or whatever is, the network isn't under military control.
It'll be interesting to see. I'm also very interested the work being done on unmanned submersibles, using pressure differential and ballast tanks to provide the propulsion and unpredictable trajectories, where the drone kind of "dolphins" through the water, which I saw a short concept and test video of a few months back. (If I find the link I'll come back and post it.)
Also, it would be awesome if you could so an episode on the SS109 round, cos I don't think small arms ammo gets enough credit! Lol.
(Plus, I can't remember the specifics, because I haven't had to think about it in 20 years, and I'm terrible at research.....ok lazy.) 😂
I have been looking forward to your video on this since I first heard of the sea baby grad launcher. The sea baby archer and potential anti ship missile version I had not come across. Head spinning…
GREAT video. A nice episode to celebrate your 100K subscribers with! Congratulations - well earned.
Subject matter like this, IMO is what's brought you to this YT plateau, so quickly, Matt.
I think your future is very promising Sir. Slava Ukraini. Genius Designers / Creators!
Ahh thank you very much sir, yes sadly it's been popular. It just made sense to do it on here while doing it with work. Trying to sprinkle in other content too. I think to celebrate 100K I'll do an AMA. Thanks for the support :)
Ferdinand Foch's use of aircraft in war... was probably applied by some regarding drones. History repeats yet again.
Interesting new platforms being developed, i wonder if other countries will start developing their own
I would worry about their radar signature. Those rockets / their launch tubes will hugely increase the radar return, especially on the side profile. And given the inaccuracy even while stationary, what do they plan to hit with that? They have a fixed firing angle, no way of steering the tubes and rocking motion while moving.
Personally, I do not see the added value in this iteration. A version with a strela / stinger, ideally mounted on a rotating platform, seems much more useful than this.
The Grad rockets would be useful for damaging a port or oil terminal. If the rockets are fired at a port from 4km then even with the poor accuracy of the Grad, most should land in the port. Oil refineries near the coast or oil terminals would be good targets (Putin's palace might be also be a tempting target.)
Do the UK drone boats got a gyro stabilizer ? "The gyro stabilizer is essentially a large, heavy spinning disc, turning at very high RPMs, sort of like a throwing wheel used to make a clay pot. As the boat rolls, the spinning wheel will naturally angle forward or aft, imparting a force on the hull in opposition to the roll."
Also there is the delay in handling the drone - so precise attacks are not likely - at the moment :)
Is msbs grot video still in the manking?
I hope they have a range finder on it and calculated the trajectory at different distances it would be a really useful weapon around the coast especially crimea.
I wonder what area saturation rates look like with 6 tubes as opposed to 40
Probably more untouched pockets within thr area. But go knows what the dispersion is like.
I don't think it would really work the same, it's more direct fire since it's not stable and firing a volley like a grad truck.
Might be useful for overwhelming a ship's anti-air systems during an attack.
Yeah these drones are extremely effective against surface vessels but are vulnerable to aircraft, especially those with EW equipment. I think I saw a video where a Russian naval helicopter smoke one of these drones a few weeks ago
I feel like the operators are gonna be staring into their screens, finger over the fire button, waiting for the usv to crest a wave, smash the fire button, repeat.
Yeah, they must time the launch on the pitch of the sea, the difference must be huge.
I imagine a commercial IMU incorporated into the USV autopilot should actually be capable of timing rocket launches to match the wave motion of the USV, at least a little better than a remote operator. I don't know if the current system uses that approach, but it's a conceptually simple upgrade for the future.
@@aaronclair4489 true ya
Expending resources on ad-hoc equipment of dubious usefulness is a Ukrainian speciality. They’re great for missions that will generate a lot of good publicity if they’re successful, like when they sunk the landing ship. It doesn’t change facts on the ground but it helps to perpetuate the narrative that they are “fighting back.”
And yet they’ve sunk a significant proration of the Russian Black Sea fleet with drones just like these.
War breeds innovation. I mean look at half the shit the Russians are using, its cobbled to gather from old cold war vehicles and random sheet metal welded on.
We have mid to late ww2 scenario again,many smaller units vs solo or few big units.
Thanks for another great video!🇦🇺👴🏻
Thank you for watching!!
Flying drones would take out sea drones? Could even automate it. Have the drones patrol the area and land and recharge.
Maybe a test bed for guided missile
I guess when you have more aluminum skiffs than people...
Sea borne drones have proven to be excellent ship killers so far.
This is a huge dilemma for Russia. By themselves Grad rockets, even the more expensive precision guided varients, can't damage the kerch straight bridge significantly with their relatively small warheads... but Russia also can't intercept them. This means that Russia either has to deny themselves munitions shipments into Crimea, or run the risk of a munitions train on the bridge being targeted by a weapon they have no defense against. They just got done building huge barriers around the bridge piers, which indicates they have no confidence intercepting sea babies up close... Now they have to intercept them 10km out?
brother, even the head of the SBU said the russians have stop using the bridge for supply, hitting it would just be a major PR victory at this point.Would like to point out that there is a video showing a pansir intercepting a salvo from an vampire system somewhere in the belgorad region i belive, granted the rockets were flying almost right above the system but it is posible.
@@Sunshine-sl3kr I didn't know they had completely stopped munitions shipments across the bridge.
With regards to interception... 8 grad rockets launched from 5km out would take 9 seconds to cross the distance. The Pansir S1 has an ideal reaction time from detection to launch of 4 seconds, and can launch a missile every 1.5 seconds. That means only four interceptions are possible within the 9 seconds, and this is assuming no flight time on the interceptors. This means that Russia would need to put 2x Pansir systems on the bridge for every Grad Sea Baby included in an attack. They don't have many Pansir to spare, and there isn't much room on the bridge near the main span for more than 3-4 systems.
More realistically, the same dilemma now exists for every Russian asset within 40km of the black sea coastline... There certainly aren't enough systems to protect every port facility, radar station, government office, storage depot, etc.
I would love to know how they got the price tag of $200k.. These are not new boats (you can see painted corrosion and old holes), and even if they were, a fiberglass or aluminum hull of that size is quick, easy and cheap to make. Even with the satellite uplink, assuming new hydraulic steering and associated electronics for remote use, and the camera on the front, I could see these being EASILY made for $10k-20k even here in the US. Now, I'm not taking into account any hardening or weapons systems onboard, since I have no idea how much that stuff costs, so maybe that's where the number is from, but still $200k seems ridiculous.
Not a clue! Hoping to do a guest interview with someone who specialises in this stuff in the future.
corruption isnt cheap
cameraa modules, electronics, signal enchantments and antennas are very expensive plus other engineering, reesearch and cost to product materials and pay for workers
antennas for good signal with low latency are VERY expensive and also a good camera module is not cheap and PLUS the payload/weapon system is also expensive(at least 50k$) soo corruption isn't the (main) problem. but who knows maybe there is corruption at some level and also forgot to mention that having all this build and productid is quite hard in war environment so that's plus the money. overall its quite ok for the price i would even call it quite cheap for what we've done
They make this for 1000 dollars in their garage. Rest of the money is pocketed.
The version with the repurposed IR air-to-air missile got me thinking. If Ukraine's allies have any stocks of old such missiles (e.g. R-73, Sidewinder, Stinger etc.) then perhaps they could be repurposed for this role, not just to protect kamikaze drones from Russian helicopters but also by pushing them further into Russian coastal waters and ambushing aircraft in the pattern around coastal airbases/military installations. It may not result in many shoot-downs but even a few could result in the Russians having to redirect resources.
quite hard to implement, we won't see something like that in near future
jet ski 👎
rocket ski 👍
What i dont get is why Ukraine is investing so heavily into attritioning russias naval capabilities, through both the USV campaign and strikes on russian naval assets, when russian naval capabilites are such an insignificant aspect of this war
I think propaganda value can't be underestimated. Ever since the sinking of the Moskova the Naval war seems to have head a significance.
@@TheArmourersBench @OldTownCrab Russian ships are also a major platform for launching cruise missiles
torpedo boat evolution all over again
And thus the grid remover becomes the sea/city remover.
not a great idea against big ships maybe against inshore targets - guess we will see
Imagine you're proud of your mighty fleet then someone whacks a bunch of it with googoo gaga baby jetski bombs lmao
gogo gadget, pocket rocket
I would think enemy Fear Guided weapons Much more
using boat to launch 6 small unguided rockets seems resource waste -
Boat that carries long distance and launches many flying Drones -
that would scare me more than Random small rocket
I had always thought those grad rockets looked small on those sea baby’s maybe their way bigger than I thought
Ukraine is building the worlds smallest navy - literally.
They will need tiny soldiers, living in tiny houses.
@@kiereluurs1243 It all makes sense - Russian lawmakers has floated the baseless claim that Ukraine has super soldiers. One lawmaker said the Ukrainians were being given "drugs" to turn them into "monsters."
- all the while, their navy gets sunk - or should I say, goes on long-term special underwater missions.
My damn impulse to comment before I get to the bit of the video I commented about. Dawg, you commented so quick I deleted my comment yet you beat me to it 💀
All good haha. Thanks for watching!
@@TheArmourersBench Of course my man, keep up the good reporting. It's always good to learn about stuff.
so an unmanned missile boat
Grads are typically unguided though so not sure how effective these will be.
Are these grad launchers? Looks more like Uragan diameter
Absurd levels of scatter, basically unusable for anything beside threatening oil terminals on the eastern black sea.
* Michelle Phifer voice *
*don't call me baby*
Wow 7seconds after upload
😲
OMG WOW!
Holy shit, and they say Russia is desperate.
Ukraine isn’t a supposed military superpower.
but why are they using a boat, on land?
couldnt they just attach the rocket launchers to something land based and get better results?
That's just a photo from the testing.
Useless...
1) These things are not that accurate when fired from actual Grad launcher, let alone this. The drone moves very fast, jumping on waves... No way you can talk about any accuracy
2) These things increase radar cross section making it easier to detect
3) A couple of bigger rubber boats armed with heavy machine guns can stop this or at least force the Ukrainians to engage them instead of more valuable targets. I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like that; Russian small boats armed with HMG on constant patrol
So, these things are just for marketing value, little else can they do
Indeed If the Russians aren't already mounting guard boat patrols then no wonder they lost ships to USVs.
Lets be honest. Ukraine invented many amazing things. This is not one of them. Accuracy 0
These types of rockets aren’t for accuracy. Their for saturation.
Nobody puts seaBaby in the corner!
Definitely make life uncomfortable in the Russian Navy.
A computer could fire those rockets at predefined pitch, yaw and range, sort of like a bomb release computer. Does Ukraine have spare computers for that purpose? I have no idea.
What if Ukraine builds a traversing quad Stinger mount on a sea baby, park it outside of Putin’s Black Sea mansion and wait for the perfect moment?
This looks like something a third grader would design. Ukraine seems way behind in development of mass producible low cost cruise missiles capable of delivering 500kg bombs at 400mph. Germany was able to launch 100 V1s per day 80 years ago.
when rus missiles and drones can easily penetrate air defense having mass production is impossible because the factories will be priority targets. We have small productions in underground of buildings or something like that, having big machines to product them there is immposible
Ukraine doesn't have any production capacity. It's in a way worse demographic situation than 1940s Germany, there are no men to work in factories or operate the manufacturing.
@@_________________404 they are way worse but not nonexistent
@@Mykha_panda Rent some factory space in a NATO country. Maybe Germany?
NEW USSR COASTAL BOAT FOR 5 NAVAL PLAYER 🗣️🔥
Looks nonsensical
I mean iran has been strapping mlrs systems on boats for a while now it’s not like it’s a new or innovative design although the fact it is a drone is innovative
I'm sure the russians said the same about the first unmanned naval drones that absolutely devastated the Moskva.
I mean, looks like a modern adaptation of torpedo tubes, more technologically sound for modern war.
@@Galil-aces there were missile boats in ww2. but those had 150 or so missiles. here its 6. unguided and not much options to aim.
@@jebise1126 Israel and turkey has actually developed guided grad rockets but I believe their using heading and elevation to lob them at a pre sighted point so they probably need to be at a certain range to be effective but since they have that I wouldn’t say they have no way of aiming
When your so desperate that your using boats “on land” maybe it’s time to talk peace.
They're using them to shell land targets not on land haha
Buddy have you seen what the diving Russians are coming up with? They’re welding fucking sheet metal to their tanks. That’s ducking desperation.
At this rate im not surprise they will deploy terminator