The Russian attack marine drone "Dandelion" is structurally very similar to Ukrainian models — the famous SeaBaby, which blew up the Crimean Bridge.
The Russians have designed a marine drone - a clone of the Ukrainian one
The Russian company KMZ showed the attack aquatic drone "Dandelion", similar to Ukrainian naval drones.
This was reported by "Military" on its Telegram channel.
The Russian Kingisepp Machine-Building Plant KMZ (St. Petersburg), which specializes in producing boats for the Russian military and naval drones, presented the FUTB "Dandelion" kamikaze drone.
Ten drones were ordered by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for testing. Its abbreviation is deciphered as "fast unmanned transporter boat (FUTB) "Dandelion".
It is reported that the tests should take place directly in the war zone against Ukraine.
Russian "Dandelion" is structurally very similar to Ukrainian models.
However, the Russian drone still has a number of key differences. For example, there are no visible communication antennas on the drone body, as well as optical tracking and targeting devices.
The lack of a camera will probably prevent the drone from being used against maneuverable surface targets.
It can be assumed that its purpose will be to strike static objects, such as bridges and ports, the publication writes.
KMZ representatives claim that the drone can carry a warhead or other payload weighing up to 600 kg. For comparison, the SeaBaby drone that struck the Crimean Bridge in July 2023 had 850 kilograms of explosives on board.
The Russian drone can cover a distance of 200 km at a speed of up to 80 km/h. It is noted that this is enough to strike Odesa in case of a launch from Crimea. In addition, it is possible that they can be launched from ships already at sea.
At the same time, it is not clear how it will be controlled without satellite communication because the corresponding antennas were not seen on board.
It can be assumed that the Russians used an inertial system with GPS signal correction for this, as in the Shahed-136 kamikaze drones. The possibility of using communication relay drones cannot be ruled out either.
Ukrainian drone SeaBaby: what is known
The naval surface drones that successfully attacked the Crimean Bridge, as well as the Russian amphibious assault ship "Olenegorskiy Gornyak" and the tanker "SIG", are the SSU's technical development. They were called "SeaBaby".
Sources in the special services report that the Russian invaders are trying to recover the SeaBaby surface drone to use against Ukraine.
According to sources, the Russians managed to assemble a "conditionally working" model of the Ukrainian surface drone "SeaBaby" from the remains of several devices found at the site of the attacks.
