Security Service Head reveals where unique Ukrainian Sea Baby drones are assembled

The production of uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) successfully used by Ukraine to attack the Crimean Bridge and Russian vessels was set up at an underground production facility in Ukraine.

Source: Vasyl Maliuk, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, in a comment to CNN; press service of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU)

Quote: "Our drones are manufactured at one of our underground facilities in Ukraine.

We are currently developing and implementing a lot of different interesting operations, in particular in the Black Sea. I promise you, it will be a surprise, especially for our enemies."

Details: Maliuk said that the USVs that successfully attacked the Crimean Bridge, as well as the Russian landing ship Olenegorskiy Gornyak and the SIG tanker, are the SSU's own technical development.

He added that the SSU team, assisted by civilian engineers and IT specialists, is working on the development and production of these drones.

The USVs that damaged the Crimean Bridge in July 2023 were named Sea Baby [Maliuk’s surname means "baby" in Ukrainian, so there is an intentional play on words with naming the drones Sea Baby – ed.].

Maliuk said that the surface drones that damaged the Crimean Bridge in July 2023 were equipped with an 850-kilogram warhead. In addition, he stated that two separate USVs were used to hit the landing ship and tanker, each with 450-kilogram warheads.

Maliuk also noted that Western partners are not involved in these special operations, but are actively adopting the SSU's experience.

Previously: Ukrainian intelligence services provided CNN with exclusive footage of an experimental surface drone being used to attack the Kerch (Crimean) Bridge and new details of the attack.

Vasyl Maliuk, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), told CNN that the drone used was named Sea Baby, and it was the result of months of development that began immediately after the full-scale invasion.

Background:

• Sergey Aksyonov, the so-called head of Russian-occupied Crimea, said that an "emergency" had occurred on the Crimean Bridge and that traffic on the bridge was suspended. Russian Telegram channels reported that a span of the bridge had "collapsed".
• Earlier, Russian media reported that the Crimean Bridge was guarded by fighter jets from the sky and divers and fighting dolphins underwater. 
• Sources told Ukrainska Pravda that the nighttime attack on the Crimean Bridge was a special operation by the SSU and the Navy.

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