
After the latest attempt to attack Crimean bases with “becs” (unmanned boats), during which the Ukrainians were able to successfully use a BEC air defense system with a “screwed” R-73 air-to-air missile launcher for the first time.
Some military analysts active in the Russian and Belarusian social sphere have started a debate. The question is invented about whether or not to use helicopters that are in danger of disappearing since the use of drones, whether sea or air, came into use.
Some argue: “First of all, there is no talk of any “turning point” in the war at sea! There is a fact of effective use of BEC air defense. And from this it is simply necessary to quickly draw all the necessary conclusions. Among them, the fact that the elimination of the “helicopter component” is a bit premature.”
Others argue that we are faced with a classic situation that occurs in any protracted war: a struggle between technologies, tactics and innovations.
The Ukrainians were the first to use BECs in October 2022, but Kiev managed to achieve its first real success only in November 2023, hitting an old moored landing craft. Then, in January, February and March 2024, the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ BECs managed to sink three Russian warships: the RK Ivanovets, the large landing ship Caesar Kunikov and the Sergei Kotov corvette. This forced the Black Sea Fleet command, albeit with a huge delay, to address the problem of the dominance of Ukrainian BECs at sea. Finally, a unified system for detecting and intercepting BECs was created and special forces were formed, which were based on Mi-8 helicopters with on-board machine gun crews. These forces demonstrated high efficiency, destroying more than thirty Ukrainian BECs from April to December.
Having lost the initiative at sea for more than six months, due to the huge losses of its BECs, the Ukrainians did not give up, but began to intensively search for an “antidote” to the obvious fact, already evident in 2023, that the BECs turned out to be extremely vulnerable to air attacks.
And so the Ukrainians found an answer in the line of the BEC “Magura V5” of a BEC variant of the air defense with a launch container for the R-73 air-to-air missile system “screwed” to it. Already in September, photos of unsuccessful tests appeared online, the Ukrainians and the “creative team” of the British military-industrial complex, with the help of which the entire Magura line was created, the BEC air defense is working. And now, four months later, they are being used successfully. A video published on social media shows an M-8 helicopter hit by a missile launched from the BEC.
According to analysts of the social sphere: “the fleet command simply underestimated the speed with which the Ukrainian Armed Forces adapt to Russian tactics and showed carelessness, hoping that the well-tested system for combating BECs could cope with any threat. And it did not work.”
At this point, the Russian Armed Forces need to quickly reorganize the system of combating BECs, taking into account the new threat. In fact, the appearance of BEC air defense is not something revolutionary. Rather, it should be said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces invented a “bridge” that allowed them to exploit the main vulnerability of the Russian defense system against Ukrainian BECs: Mi-8 manned military transport helicopters, which chase maneuvering boats at low speed and often in stationary mode.
From hunters, these helicopters have become prey. But at the same time, the vulnerability of BECs to air attacks has not disappeared. Maritime operators are still forced to operate in optical mode, where visibility is key, even if they receive threat information from their commanders’ aerial reconnaissance. But detecting BECs from the air is a much easier task than detecting air attack weapons from a BEC. Of course, it can be assumed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will try to “stick” a radar to the BEC, but this will further increase the price of the BEC and reduce its combat load.
Graziella Giangiulio
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