Danish and Russian drones observe each other in Baltic Sea

A Danish uncrewed surface vessel and a Russian reconnaissance drone spent several minutes observing each other near Bornholm in the Baltic Sea on June 25, after the Russian corvette Soobrazitelny approached the Danish drone at close range.

The Stormborn X-Wave 01 was anchored about 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of Bornholm, testing radar and sonar equipment supplied by Danish defense manufacturers Terma and Mydefence, according to Stormborn and reporting by Danish broadcaster TV 2. The Soobrazitelny, a Project 20380 Steregushchiy-class corvette with hull number 531, passed within roughly 200 meters of the Danish vessel with its Automatic Identification System transponder switched off.

The corvette then launched a small quadcopter drone that circled the Danish boat at close range for several minutes, according to Stormborn.

Stormborn founder and CEO Frederik Søndergaard Hansen said the company had positioned the drone in an area with limited Danish coastal radar coverage.

“We lay down there to monitor an area that the Danish Defence has a hard time keeping an eye on,” Hansen said.

“I would say that this is the first time that it has succeeded in image documenting a drone so close to Danish territory,” Hansen said.

The Stormborn vessel’s onboard sensors tracked the corvette throughout the encounter, identifying it by radar, electro-optical and infrared cameras, and detecting the Russian drone through radio-frequency sensors, according to Stormborn. The company said its artificial intelligence system correctly identified the corvette’s hull number and tagged crew members visible on deck along with a Ka-27 helicopter parked on the ship’s landing pad.

Stormborn said it handed all radar logs, sensor data and video footage from the encounter to the Royal Danish Navy’s maritime surveillance service. TV 2 published the footage and radar plots in mid-July.

Footage recorded by the Russian quadcopter itself has since surfaced, showing the drone’s view as it circled the Danish vessel. The video gives a rare look at the encounter from both sides, with the Stormborn footage showing the Russian drone and corvette, and the Russian footage showing the Danish boat below.

The Soobrazitelny has been observed on previous occasions escorting tankers associated with Russia’s shadow fleet and was seen doing so again in the days following the Bornholm encounter.

The Steregushchiy-class corvette displaces roughly 2,100 tons, measures 104.5 meters (343 feet) in length, and carries a crew of about 100, according to publicly available naval specifications. The Stormborn X-Wave is a small uncrewed surface vessel designed to be towed by road and deployed without a crew for extended offshore monitoring.