Russians conceal more ships of the Black Sea Fleet

Russians continue to apply camouflage to Black Sea Fleet ships in an effort to protect them from drones.

The OSINT analyst MT Anderson released the corresponding satellite images in his X (twitter).

More and more ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, currently based in Novorossiysk, are getting their bows and sterns camouflaged, which should theoretically protect them from identification by reconnaissance.

This camouflage was given to unknown large landing ships of projects 775 and 11711, frigates of project 11356R “Admiral Essen” and “Admiral Makarov,” two corvettes of project 21631, and 2 patrol ships of project 22160.

Militarnyi previously reported Russians attempting to disguise their ships back in June 2023.

This camouflage is presumably a response to the threat posed by Ukrainian maritime kamikaze drones, which use cameras to identify targets.

Experts from Naval News suggested that this camouflage pattern aims to confuse drone operators so that they take it for a less valuable target.

However, given that a thermal camera, which clearly shows the entire silhouette of the ship, is used to identify and target the ship, such camouflage is ineffective.

It can be assumed that in this way, the Russians are trying to protect their fleet from reconnaissance drones carrying optical reconnaissance equipment. The resolution of the optics may not allow for accurate identification of ships whose bow and stern will merge with the water surface.

Losses of the Russian fleet during the Russian-Ukrainian war

During the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, the invaders’ fleet lost over 20 percent of its composition, damaged and destroyed. The most expensive loss was the former flagship – the Moskva missile cruiser.

The landing ships suffered the largest losses. The Minsk, Novocherkassk, and Tsezar Kunikov were destroyed, and the Olenegorsky Gornyak and the Saratov Project 1171 landing ships were damaged to various degrees.

In addition, the Rostov-on-Don Project 636.3 submarine, the Askold Project 22800 corvette, several small landing ships, a large number of assault boats, and the Spasatel Vasily Bekh tug were destroyed.

Besides, the Veliky Ustyug corvette, the Admiral Makarov frigate, and the Ivan Golubets minesweeper were damaged to various degrees.

Most ships were scuttled or hit by surface kamikaze drones.