Magura V5
The naval strike drone credited with driving the Black Sea Fleet from the northwestern Black Sea.
Record
Battlefield role
Sea denial without a fleet — one-way and recoverable strikes against warships and, in derivatives, air targets.
Strengths
Cheap relative to its targets by orders of magnitude; low profile and swarm tactics defeat defences designed for conventional threats; strategic effect.
Limitations
Vulnerable to alerted close-in defences, helicopters and electronic warfare; sea-state dependent; one-way employment consumes the platform.
Visual identification
Low, sleek grey hull roughly five metres long, near-flush with the waterline; small sensor mast; visible wake is often the first sign of one.
Documented conflict use
Publicly credited with multiple documented strikes on Black Sea Fleet vessels in 2023–24, contributing to the fleet's eastward withdrawal.
Related key events
Black Sea Fleet pushed from the western Black Sea
Repeated strikes on Sevastopol and losses to naval drones force Russia to relocate most major fleet units eastward; Ukraine's unilateral export corridor consolidates in the fleet's absence.