DIU Unveils New Magura Naval Drones That Destroyed $500M in Russian Military Equipment
On May 14 in Kyiv, Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence Directorate (DIU), led by Kyrylo Budanov, officially unveiled its Magura series of strike maritime drones. According to a DIU press release, this cutting-edge technology has already been used to destroy over $500 million worth of Russian military equipment.
The lineup includes four drone models:
- Magura V5 – a drone capable of operating in coordinated swarms;
- Magura V6P – a multifunctional naval platform;
- Magura V7 (missile variant) – a missile-carrying drone armed with two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, which made history as the first naval drone to destroy an enemy combat aircraft. DIU special forces used it to shoot down two Russian Su-30 fighter jets worth over $100 million in total;
- Magura V7 (machine gun variant) – a model equipped with a combat machine gun module.
Various modifications of the Magura drone have been deployed over the past two years in the Black Sea conflict, where they struck 17 Russian sea and air targets, completely destroying 15 of them. Confirmed losses include:
- Two Mi-8 helicopters
- Two Su-30 fighter jets
- Several large Black Sea Fleet vessels, including the Sergey Kotov, Ivanovets, Caesar Kunikov, and others
The total estimated damage inflicted on Russian forces exceeds half a billion US dollars.
«Thanks to the Maguras and other maritime drones, a doctrinal shift has already occurred. There’s a well-known phrase that Ukraine has managed to destroy virtually a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet — despite not having a fleet of its own. But I would say this is a fleet — a modern fleet of the 21st century. The struggle between it and the classical heavy fleet has been ongoing for decades,» said military expert Mykhailo Samus.
DIU Unveils New Magura Naval Drones That Destroyed $500M in Russian Military Equipment
On May 14 in Kyiv, Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence Directorate (DIU), led by Kyrylo Budanov, officially unveiled its Magura series of strike maritime drones. According to a DIU press release, this cutting-edge technology has already been used to destroy over $500 million worth of Russian military equipment.
The lineup includes four drone models:
- Magura V5 – a drone capable of operating in coordinated swarms;
- Magura V6P – a multifunctional naval platform;
- Magura V7 (missile variant) – a missile-carrying drone armed with two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, which made history as the first naval drone to destroy an enemy combat aircraft. DIU special forces used it to shoot down two Russian Su-30 fighter jets worth over $100 million in total;
- Magura V7 (machine gun variant) – a model equipped with a combat machine gun module.
Various modifications of the Magura drone have been deployed over the past two years in the Black Sea conflict, where they struck 17 Russian sea and air targets, completely destroying 15 of them. Confirmed losses include:
- Two Mi-8 helicopters
- Two Su-30 fighter jets
- Several large Black Sea Fleet vessels, including the Sergey Kotov, Ivanovets, Caesar Kunikov, and others
The total estimated damage inflicted on Russian forces exceeds half a billion US dollars.
«Thanks to the Maguras and other maritime drones, a doctrinal shift has already occurred. There’s a well-known phrase that Ukraine has managed to destroy virtually a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet — despite not having a fleet of its own. But I would say this is a fleet — a modern fleet of the 21st century. The struggle between it and the classical heavy fleet has been ongoing for decades,» said military expert Mykhailo Samus.
