Ukrainian ingenuity is ushering in a new form of warfare at sea
Are uncrewed attack vessels the wave of the future?
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/media-assets/image/20221210_STP003.jpg)
On September 21st an odd piece of flotsam washed up on the outskirts of Sevastopol. It was about five and a half metres long and the consensus was that it was a USV (uncrewed surface vessel, essentially a drone boat), possibly on a reconnaissance mission, that had been put together by the ingenious boffins who are to Ukraine what Q branch is to James Bond.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Q-boats”
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