Ukraine's Avarid unveils MOBIDIK naval drone in six combat variants

A new Ukrainian unmanned surface vessel ships in six payload configurations, from interceptor-drone air defense to a 300-kilogram assault warhead, as NATO scrambles to copy the sea drones that have hammered Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Ukrainian company Avarid presented MOBIDIK, a modular unmanned surface vessel that comes in six combat variants, at the Ukrainian-Nordic DIH Naval Forge 2026 conference on June 27, according to Militarnyi. The hull runs up to 120 hours on its own, reaches out to 1,400 kilometers, tops 65 km/h, and stays seaworthy in waves to 1.2 meters.

All six configurations are built and in operational use, the company head told Militarnyi. "The vessel you see here is a fully functional platform that is already in use," he said. More would surface, he added, once the boats start carrying out combat missions.

Each version answers a different job. MD-1 carries five fixed-wing interceptor drones to throw up a maritime air-defense layer, while MD-2 swaps in eight quadcopter interceptors. MD-3 launches Avarid's own MORRIGAN mid-strike drones at ships, coastal targets, and reconnaissance assets. MD-4 fires a jet-powered, long-range strike drone at strategic targets. The MD-5 is the gunfighter, fitting two R-73 or AIM-9 air-to-air missiles alongside a Browning M2 heavy machine gun. And the MD-6 assault model pairs a 300-kilogram warhead with FPV strike drones for large vessels and port infrastructure, Mezha detailed.

Here is why a startup's product launch is a battlefield story. Ukraine's sea drones already broke the Black Sea: Magura and Sea Baby boats damaged and sank Russian warships and chased the bulk of Moscow's fleet off occupied Crimea. NATO wants the same effect. Western militaries are standing up naval drone fleets after watching that campaign, a Ukrainian intelligence commander told Business Insider on June 25, though he warned European shipyards lack the combat experience baked into Kyiv's hulls.

Codification comes next, Avarid says, then serial production. The open question is volume. A Western navy buys air defense, strike, and assault as three separate programs; MOBIDIK loads all three onto one modular hull, from a maker whose intelligence-unit peer told Business Insider that Kyiv revalidates its boats in combat within hours of a change.