UFORCE promotes Magura combat record for U.S. bid

UFORCE, the London-headquartered maker of Ukraine’s Magura naval drones, is touting a series of Ukrainian strikes on Russian air defenses in Crimea as evidence for its pitch to the Pentagon, days before the deadline for a Defense Innovation Unit prize challenge seeking naval drones that can launch their own aircraft.

Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence agency, GUR, said its Group 13 special operations unit destroyed or damaged Russian equipment in occupied Crimea in early August using Magura naval drones to carry smaller FPV drones toward the coast before launching them at targets on land. GUR said the unit hit two launchers from a Russian S-400 “Triumf” air defense battery and an antenna used to control “Orion” drones. In a separate strike the same week, GUR said Group 13 destroyed a Pantsir-S1 air defense system valued at roughly $15 million, along with a military crane. GUR’s own public statements put the total cost to Russian forces at tens of millions of dollars, without giving a more precise figure.

UFORCE said the value of destroyed equipment topped $80 million, a figure not confirmed in GUR’s own public statements.

“From now on, our Maguras threaten the Russian occupiers on land as well, a fundamental shift in the battlespace,” said the commander of Group 13, who uses the callsign “Thirteenth.”

“What we are seeing in Crimea is exactly the fight UFORCE was built for. The Magura isn’t just a one-way-attack naval strike drone, it’s crossing hundreds of kilometers of open water and putting aerial drones on targets inland,” said Oleg Rogynskyy, chief executive of UFORCE. “That’s long-range strike effect at a fraction of what high-end systems cost. And nothing about it is specific to the Black Sea. Any contested waters, same logic. The future is battle-proven systems that work together and give operators options no single platform can.”

UFORCE said the operation showcases the same capability the Pentagon is now soliciting. The Defense Innovation Unit opened its Suitable Warfighting Adaptive Payloads (SWAP-USV) challenge in late July, offering $100 million in prize money for mature unmanned surface vessels integrated with at least two market-ready aerial drones able to detect and strike targets, with a Sprint 1 submission deadline of Aug. 10 and a further $200 million budgeted for follow-on production contracts. UFORCE has separately signed a memorandum of understanding with Alaska-based RECONCRAFT to build Magura vessels in the United States.

UFORCE’s release describes Magura’s hull as modified with hatches that open at sea, letting onboard FPV drones launch and fly toward nearby targets rather than being flown from shore, extending their range and reducing the time they spend exposed to jamming.

The company says it consolidated nine Ukrainian defense-technology developers, including the teams behind Magura and its Nemesis strike drone line, which includes a Magura-launched variant called SEASTRIKE. UFORCE’s statement did not specify whether Nemesis or SEASTRIKE, rather than the FPV drones GUR described, were the aircraft used in the Crimea strikes.