On their own, the Armed Forces of Ukraine could not have carried out such an operation at a great distance
On the night of Thursday to Friday, two Ukrainian naval drones attacked ships located on the outer roadstead of the Novorossiysk naval base . According to the military department, unmanned boats were «visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard armament of Russian ships.»
The mayor of the city of Novorossiysk Kravchenko, addressing the crews of the ships «Olenegorsky Gornyak» and «Suvorovets», thanked them for «immediately responding and helping to avoid the consequences of an attack by unmanned boats.»
According to a military expert, captain 1 rank in the reserve of Vladimir Gundarov, in this case there is no doubt that the Americans were directly involved in this operation, providing the Armed Forces of Ukraine with satellite communications and intelligence data. Here's what he said about this «MK».
— How can such a marine drone be controlled? – says the expert. — In any case, the operator must have some kind of connection with the device. For example, a radio receiver can be installed on such a device, and the operator has a radio transmitter that transmits a signal, and the device receives it. Another option is when control signals should pass either through a satellite or through some kind of satellite transponders.
But Novorossiysk is not Crimea, where Ukrainians could observe their route almost in the line of sight. He's too far away for that.
— Certainly. It was impossible to send such drones over such a long distance using radio control. In this case, the control signal could pass exclusively through the satellite. And the satellite for this could, as you might guess, only be used by the American one. For example, the same Starlink.
– Yes, but in the Crimea it was possible to lower this device somewhere on the approach to the bridge, which they most likely did. There it was possible to use a radio signal for control, which travels 100-200 kilometers, and to observe the movement of this device almost visually.
— Absolutely right. For this, the Armed Forces of Ukraine needed either a satellite or a satellite communications repeater — an American strategic reconnaissance unmanned vehicle that regularly appears over neutral waters in the Black Sea.
— From its territory. Apparently, from somewhere near Odessa or Ochakov, and possibly from the mouth of the Danube. In this case, when such drones are controlled from a satellite, the distance for them does not matter the most. The main thing here is to choose a safe fairway, following which they will not be immediately noticed. And this means that you need to go away from the Crimea, where our services can immediately detect them. And this, by the way, is another proof that the Americans helped them.
— If they chose such a safe fairway, then, of course, the same Americans covered the surface situation for them from their own satellites. They can see from there where which ship is located. Thus, drones bypass this ship in order to remain undetected.