Ukraine’s Sea Drones Armed with US Sidewinders Shoot Down Russian Su-30SM Jets

Key Points: In early May 2025, Ukrainian forces achieved a historic first in naval warfare, reportedly using Magura-7 sea drones armed with US-made AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles to shoot down two Russian Su-30SM fighter jets near Novorossiysk.

-This innovative adaptation, confirmed by GUR Chief Kyrylo Budanov, turns Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) into potent anti-aircraft platforms.

-This success follows extensive Ukrainian drone attacks that have already crippled Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

-The ability of these modified naval drones to engage and destroy advanced fighter aircraft poses a significant new threat to Russian air operations in the region.  

Ukraine’s Magura Marine Drone Downs Russian Fighter Aircraft

For the first time in history, an unmanned underwater drone—designed and built in Ukraine—shot down two advanced Russian fighter jets. The two aircraft—one on May 2 and the second following a few days later—were Su-30SM models, a derivative of the original Su-27 design.

The aircraft was developed in the latter half of the 1990s at the Irkut production plant. Its configuration features a set of moveable canard foreplanes linked to the aircraft’s flight control system, providing for a highly maneuverable aircraft. The aircraft is valued at around $50 million per airframe and is slightly larger than the US F-15 Eagle.

The drone system that brought the aircraft down is a relatively new platform from Ukraine. Called the Magura V5, it is 18 feet long and can achieve speeds of up to 42 knots. The craft’s materials are largely non-metallic, making it a stealthy vehicle that is hard for enemy ships to detect on radar.

The Magura’s range is up to 500 miles, and it can deploy a variety of payloads. These can be explosive ordnance or armed with missile systems. These sea drones are also equipped with video cameras, GPS navigation aids, and autonomous navigation systems. This system permits the Magura V5 to operate independently or under remote human control like an FPV drone on land.

The Fleet That Ran Away

Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency, the GUR, has published a video of what it says was a first-ever operation conducted near the unprecedented operation near the Russian port of Novorossiysk. The Magura, in this case, was armed with an air-to-air missile launched in a surface-to-air configuration. It was these missiles, fired by remote control, that brought the Su-30SMs down.

The Russian Black Sea fleet has already largely fled its naval bases in Crimea that it had occupied since the illegal invasion and occupation of the peninsula in 2014. At one time, the fleet boasted seventy-four warships, most of which had been based at ports in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Since the start of Vladimir Putin‘s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has developed progressively more capable drones that have delivered numerous strikes in the Black Sea and effectively forced the Russian Navy back out of its main port facilities in Crimea.

Ukrainian drones and anti-ship missiles have since managed to sink or damage one-third of these ships. Reports of relocating the fleet out of Crimea circulated since 2023, with Russian warships being hastily evacuated to what was thought then to be the safe haven of Novorossiysk.

The Ukrainians’ increasing capability in designing longer-range sea drones has left Russian combat aircraft as the leading force left to patrol the sea lanes. More than one year ago, in March 2024, the Black Sea Fleet already had almost no regular presence. That force had become “functionally inactive,” according to the British Ministry of Defence.

The Missile Shootdowns

On December 31, 2024, Ukraine used the Magura V5 drone to shoot down two Russian Mi-8 helicopters. It was then considered a first-ever event – an underwater drone taking out airborne targets from the sea.

However, these shootdowns of advanced Russian fighters pose a new threat to Moscow’s attempts to regain control of the Black Sea.

The GUR posted a video on Telegram next to its description of what it described as the world’s first destruction of a combat aircraft by a sea drone. The post said that on Friday, May 2, the GUR unit Group 13, in cooperation with Ukraine’s SBU military intelligence and Ukrainian defense forces, eliminated a Russian Su-30 in the Black Sea using a Magura sea drone equipped with a missile warhead.

What has captured a good deal of attention in the last two days is the missile that was used against these Sukhoi aircraft. Originally, these aircraft were thought to have been downed by the Artem R-73 air-to-air infrared (IR) homing missile, which has been used for decades on Russian-made fighter jets. This missile, designed in Moscow by the Vympel Machine-Building design bureau, was manufactured during the Soviet years by the Artem plant in Kyiv and is still built there today.

But what has emerged since is that the missiles used in taking out the Sukhoi fighter jets were instead US-made AIM-9 Sidewinder IR-homing missiles, the first use of this missile onboard an unmanned seaborne weapons platform. Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budanov confirmed that his service’s operators took down these two Russian Su-30SM fighters using this American missile.

He also revealed that three Magura-7 (or V7) surface drones were involved in the operation. He further explained that V7 is a Magura V5 variant specially modified for the air defense mission.

The incident shows how Ukrainian defense companies continue to find means of rapidly adapting and integrating US weapons into their platforms. It is another development that will make the life of a Russian fighter pilot in this war even more difficult.

About the Author: 

Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design.  Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.