The Future of Drone Tech: Naval Launch Platforms

Peter Zeihan 6 min

Naval drones are evolving into drone carriers that launch aerial units via tethers to bypass jamming and expand frontline reach. That is something we're probably going to see within a month or two.

Chapters

  1. 0:00

    Current Naval Drone Usage

    Ukrainians have used naval drones against Russia since the war started, with variants like Sea Baby and Magura showing success.

  2. 0:45

    Range Limitations and Solutions

    Naval drones face range limits but can be extended with fuel tanks, allowing attacks deep into Russian territory like Novorossiysk. Ukrainians now launch aerial drones from naval platforms to bypass electronic jamming that stops flying drones.

  3. 2:56

    Tethered Drone Systems

    Fiber optic tethers allow launching multiple small drones from a distance without signal interruption. Small payload limits mean these drones target personnel or strategic assets rather than sinking large warships. Naval drones enable attacks along the entire southern and eastern front without pre-positioning ground forces.

  4. 3:52

    Evolution into Drone Carriers

    Suicide drones are evolving into carriers that eject smaller drones, changing their engineering and manufacturing. Engineers will soon modify existing designs to add fuel, range, and canisters for future drone carrier models.

Key points

  • 0:00

    The Ukrainians have been using them against the Russians really since the start of the war, especially the second year.

  • 0:45

    The problem is simply range, and you can solve that with more fuel tanks to a certain degree.

  • 0:45

    What's new, what's happened in just the last month, is that the Ukrainians have now regularized the installment of aerial drones on naval drones.

  • 2:56

    Which means that if you put it on a fiber optic tether, which they are, you get somewhere between a 10 and a 50 kilometer range.

  • 2:56

    You're limited in terms of payload, because those FPV drones typically can only carry a payload of 10 pounds or less.

  • 3:52

    Now this does change the nature of the sea babies and things like them because now they're becoming drone carriers.

  • 3:52

    That is actually a very, very simple problem. Taking a suicide drone, taking the explosives off of it, giving it more fuel.

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