An early image of the Marichka from 2023. Click to see full-size.
Ukraine has dug up a heavy underwater drone first unveiled more than two and half years ago, presenting it as its latest “Wunderwaffen,” or super weapon.
The Marichka, first unveiled in 2023 by the AMMO Ukraine volunteer group, was presented again under the same name by a company called Aquatechnik.
In an episode of the podcast “To Arms” on Militarnyi released on February 2, the developers, unclear if they are the same ones from AMMO Ukraine, revealed, or rather re-revealed, some of its technical characteristics of the heavy underwater drone.
The developers stated that the Marichka has a range of up to 1,000 kilometers, a payload of about one ton, and a maximum speed of up to 10 kilometers per hour.
The design of the drone is rather very basic. It is six meters long and one meter in diameter. Construction is metal with all or most of the hull being a pressure vessel. It was unclear from the new footage if a keel running along the bottom seen in earlier test videos was still there.
The developers said the drone was made of special hull material and powered by low-noise engines, claiming that it was hard to detect.
The Marichka, equipped with an inertial navigation system, is capable of stopping at specified coordinates, remaining in standby mode for up to a week, and, after receiving a command, attacking a specified target, according to the developers, who said that it can be used to attack ships and port infrastructure, or adapted to carry out reconnaissance.
Notably, the developers from Aquatechnik admitted that even after more than two and half years of development, the Marichka has not yet been used in combat operations.
They said that the drone is still undergoing active testing and refinement, particularly in terms of navigation and power systems.
Interestingly, when AMMO Ukraine first developed the Marichka they relied on donations. Now, it is being presented as the product of a commercial company that is getting paid by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
Along with the underwater drone, Aquatechnik presented a line of unmanned sea and river vehicles, capable of performing a wide range of tasks. The developers told Militarnyi that they are currently working on four types of hulls: Viir, Harpoon, Dzyga, and Khoriv 2.0.
While the Marichka could one day become a legitimate threat, the fact that it is not yet in service indicates that the latest re-introduction of the project was just a publicity stunt, likely meant to amass more funds for Aquatechnik and legitimize the work of the company.
The drone was likely also dug up by Ukraine again in the hope of somehow pressuring Russia amid the ongoing United States-mediated talks.
A very similar thing happened when talks gained some momentum in August of last year. Ukraine’s Fire Point presented a similar Wunderwaffen, the FP-5 “Flamingo” long-range, heavy cruise missile. Since then, the company has faced serious corruption accusations and the missile has been rarely used with not much, if any, success.
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the ukrainian technician is sponsored by jordan-nike! 😅 what a sad spectacle, and meanwhile thousands are dying in trenches.