Yes I wrote it's an underwater drone, but it's very hard to remote control something under water, because radio signals don't work, and obviously Ukraine can't have ships nearby to control the sub by wire, they would be sunk immediately by the Russians.

So now you please explain to me how they controlled the drone with enough accuracy to navigate into the harbor, and hit the most valuable target there.

[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 months ago

I have no idea, but I'll throw out my ignorant guess: Sensors for movement/acceleration are cheap and plentiful. If they can get a fix from a given distance from the harbor mouth, I'd think it wouldn't be too difficult to have it run a blind route from that point.

[–] SynAcker@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Maybe a small floating buoy with a communication package/antenna on the surface thats tethered to an underwater drone?

[–] The_v@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

My guess: Waterproof outdoor fiber cable, several km's long connected to a relay out at sea. The sub unspools the cable as it moves in.

This way it avoids all jamming or detection from observers.

[–] matlag@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

We're speculating a lot here, but Ukraine already has air drones capable of flying themselves and identify targets once they're visible, even manoeuver to hit different types of tanks at their respective weak points.

So... autonomous sub??

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 months ago

Torpedos have fibre optic cables to control them for the submarine or ship they are launched from. Those are quite long, so an unmanned service vassel could transport such a torpedo close to the port and then launch it inside it.

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

They have multiple redundant communication systems

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/articles/2024/01/01/7435326/