After a significant spell away from the front line following heavy losses inflicted by Russian forces, Bayraktar TB-2 drones operated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been seen back in combat this week. Notably, the Turkish-made systems appeared in a strike mission targeting a vessel and Russian troops positioned along the Black Sea coastline, an operation that took place last Wednesday.
Bayraktar TB-2 drones back in frontline combat
In recent months, these MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance) drones had largely been assigned to surveillance over secondary operational areas, where they could keep their distance from Russia’s principal-and more modern-air-defence and electronic-warfare systems. That represented a stark shift from the opening phase of the war, when the uncrewed aircraft were repeatedly observed supporting Ukrainian attacks on a wide range of positions and platforms, including ships and armoured ground convoys.
Black Sea strikes reported by the Ukrainian Navy
Expanding on the missions in which the Bayraktar TB-2 has again been observed in action, the Ukrainian Navy posted on its Telegram channel this week: “The Navy destroyed another fast boat of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which was trying to transport an airborne unit to the Tendrivska Isthmus. Seven occupiers were eliminated and four were wounded.”
In addition, weeks earlier the service had released multimedia material showing the use of these drones against a small craft operating near the port of Zaliznyi; the footage made it possible to note the employment of multiple small guided weapons to neutralise it. Looking back to June, there is also another precedent in the form of strikes against a landing ship off the coast of Kherson.
Why the TB-2s were scaled back, and what has changed
While these examples fall well short of the level of activity seen at the very start of the conflict, they do suggest the drones are gradually reassuming the role for which Kyiv originally procured them-despite still being configured for the reconnaissance tasks to which they had been relegated. It is also worth recalling that Ukraine was already employing Bayraktar TB-2s in strike missions even before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, when it was fighting separatist forces in the Donbass region; the first recorded instance dates to October 2021.
As for how these uncrewed systems came to be pulled away from combat, it is possible to refer to 2023 reporting from local outlets and open-source intelligence (OSINT) sources. As losses mounted, these accounts pointed to a greater presence of Pantsir-S1, Buk and Tor air-defence systems, alongside an increasingly extensive use of more advanced electronic-warfare equipment. Under those conditions, large, relatively slow drones became highly vulnerable targets for Russian defences, which in turn had to be reduced through air and ground attacks to enable the Bayraktar TB-2s to return-once again underscoring that drones on their own are still not sufficient in modern combat.
Directly tied to this, analysts in specialist outlets broadly agree that the sustained use of AGM-88 (HARM) anti-radiation missiles and glide bombs delivered by manned fighter aircraft has been crucial, helping to open up areas that were previously densely covered by air-defence systems. Along the same lines, drone operations have also benefited in mountainous and coastal regions, where the terrain itself makes it harder to site air-defence assets effectively. Finally, it is important to note that Ukraine now also has a factory capable of producing Bayraktar TB-2s on its own territory, giving it greater capacity to replace units lost in combat.
Images used for illustrative purposes only
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