In grainy video footage, US special forces guide sea drones toward the hull of a large, unsuspecting ship. Seconds later, they detonate and the vessel sinks beneath the waves, leaving behind a rapidly dissipating cloud of smoke. The attack against a decommissioned target ship unfolded as part of a recent exercise in the Philippines, unannounced but shown on video to Bloomberg News. It marked the first Indo-Pacific trial of Magura-class uncrewed surface vehicles, developed in Ukraine and used with deadly effect against the Russian Black Sea fleet. Just as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have laid bare the value of cheap airborne drones, sea drones are seen as playing a crucial role in the Indo-Pacific region — an area 30 times larger than continental US and dominated by vast expanses of water.

Full report : Militaries from the US to China are racing to build sea drones, reshaping warfare across the Indo-Pacific’s vast waters.