Russian anti-drone net ships. Ukraine enforces improvisation on the Black Sea Fleet

The Black Sea War led to a situation that seemed hard to imagine a few years ago. Russian warships began to be shielded with makeshift anti-drone structures in the form of grids, gratings, and steel elements mounted above decks.

Photos published on social media show, among other things, the opposing boats of the project 21980 Player equipped with distinctive structures to impede attacks of Ukrainian drones. Before the war, Russian propaganda presented Black Sea Fleet as a modern component capable of acting in an environment saturated with radio-electronic countermeasures. After four years, reality brutally verified these assumptions.

Russia received a painful lesson from Ukraine

Ukrainian unmanned water systems have become one of the most dangerous threats to Russian ships operating on Black Sea. Relatively cheap sea drones began to effectively attack combat units, port infrastructure and logistics facilities of the Black Sea Fleet.

This is why Russian ships began to be literally "built" with additional protective structures. The purpose of such solutions is not to fully protect the unit from being hit, but to impede the operator of the drone from hitting sensitive components of the ship or to reduce the effects of the explosion.

Russia has learned such a painful lesson from Ukraine in the Black Sea that today even part of warships are covered with makeshift anti-drone nets resembling shields previously known mainly from the land front.

Project 21980 Player to protect Russian naval bases

One of the units visible on the published photos is the opposing boat of the project 21980 Player. Units of this type were designed to protect Russian naval base points against submarine diversion and asymmetrical threats.

Project 21980 boats are used to protect port infrastructure, shield naval bases and combat diversion groups operating underwater. These units operate on practically all the waters surrounding Russia, serving among others in the Black Sea Fleet, the Baltic Fleet and the North Fleet.

The Black Sea War, however, showed that even individuals intended to protect bases and counter asymmetrical threats themselves became vulnerable to attacks of modern unmanned agents.

This is why the Russians began to mount additional protective structures in the form of grids and gratings to reduce the effectiveness of attacks of Ukrainian FPV drones and unmanned boats carrying explosives.

Industry media describes the appearance of anti-drone nets on project 21980 boats Player as a eloquent example of Russian improvisation after a series of Ukrainian attacks in the Black Sea. Units designed to protect marine bases from underwater diversion themselves began to receive makeshift shields, which well shows the scale of pressure exerted via Ukrainian USV and UAV.

There are currently no confirmed data on how many Russian warships use similar anti-dron cages, and whether this solution covers only small counter-diversity and patrol units or larger submarines.

The Black Sea fleet was pushed to the defensive

Ukrainian attacks marine drones led to damage or sinking of many Russian units. Especially painful for Moscow was the sinking of a rocket cruiser Moscow, followed by further attacks on landing ships, patrol and infrastructure in Sevastopol.

As a result, Russia began to limit the activity of the Black Sea Fleet. Some of the units were withdrawn from Crimea to Novorosyńska, port security was increased and the construction of further barriers and shields against Ukrainian unmanned systems began.

The appearance of anti-drone nets on Russian ships is a symbol of this change. The fleet, which was to dominate the Black Sea, was forced to improvise and constantly seek new methods of defense against relatively cheap unmanned agents.

Black Sea – a laboratory of the new naval war

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has shown that classic warships are increasingly difficult to function in an environment saturated with drones. Even sophisticated direct defense systems do not guarantee full security today.

Ukraine has proved that innovation and asymmetrical actions can effectively reduce the activity of a much stronger fleet. Russian ships covered with drone cages are today one of the most eloquent images of this war.