Even though Ukraine does not have much in the way of a navy, it has scored several victories against the Russian military by using drone boats known as unmanned surface vessels, or USVs, providing lessons to the U.S. Navy about the future of naval warfare.

In 2024, explosives-laden Ukrainian USVs sank the Russian missile corvette Ivanovets and the patrol ship Sergey Kotov in the Black Sea. More recently, Ukraine claimed in May that its USVs armed with AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles shot down two Russian Su-30 Flanker fighters.

The question now for the U.S. Navy is how much it can learn from Ukraine about using USVs against an adversary such as China.

The Navy is already looking into the technology’s potential. In 2024, the service delivered its first 24 small uncrewed vessels to its newly es

See Full Page