Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it disabled a Russian Il-38N maritime patrol aircraft ahead of a separate operation that destroyed a Russian Kilo-class submarine in the port of Novorossiysk.
The disclosure reveals a two-phase operation behind Ukraine’s historic submarine strike on 15 December – the first time an underwater drone has ever destroyed a submarine in naval warfare. The Kilo-class submarine, valued at $400-500 million and armed with Kalibr cruise missile launchers used to strike Ukrainian cities, was hit by a Sub Sea Baby drone at Novorossiysk, a port Russia considered heavily defended after fleeing Sevastopol.
In a statement, the SBU said the strike on the aircraft was a key preparatory step that prevented Russian forces from detecting and disrupting the submarine attack.
According to the SBU, the aircraft was hit at the Yeysk air base, where Russia’s 859th Combat Employment and Aircrew Training Center for Naval Aviation is based. The operation was carried out by officers of the 13th Main Directorate of the SBU’s Military Counterintelligence Department.
The Il-38N is a modernized long-range anti-submarine aircraft used for maritime reconnaissance, submarine detection, area control, mine-laying, and torpedo strikes. Ukrainian officials said the aircraft had been actively countering the operation of SBU maritime drones in the Black Sea.
The SBU said Russia had only one aircraft of this class in the region capable of detecting the Ukrainian “Sub Sea Baby” underwater drone during its approach to the target. Disabling the aircraft, it said, enabled the successful execution of the main phase of the operation – the detonation of a Russian Kilo-class submarine in Novorossiysk.
According to the statement, the aircraft was struck using a drone equipped with an air-burst warhead containing around 2,000 downward-directed fragments. The explosion occurred above the aircraft’s main equipment and radar compartment and also damaged an engine.
The SBU estimated the value of the Il-38N at approximately $24 million and said footage from the strike illustrates vulnerabilities at Russian strategic military facilities that differ from official Russian assessments.
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