Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's Novorossiysk naval base have reportedly inflicted significant damage on two frigates, Admiral Makarov and Admiral Essen, raising concerns for the Indian Navy as these vessels share a design lineage with India's Talwar-class frigates. The attacks, which occurred on August 12, are alleged to have crippled the combat-management and strike capabilities of both ships, potentially rendering them out of service for over a year due to extensive repairs. Images suggest direct hits to critical systems, including vertical launch systems for missiles and radar equipment.

Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's Novorossiysk naval base have reportedly inflicted significant damage on two frigates, Admiral Makarov and Admiral Essen, raising concerns for the Indian Navy as these vessels share a design lineage with India's Talwar-class frigates. The attacks, which occurred on August 12, are alleged to have crippled the combat-management and strike capabilities of both ships, potentially rendering them out of service for over a year due to extensive repairs. Images suggest direct hits to critical systems, including vertical launch systems for missiles and radar equipment.

Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's Novorossiysk naval base have reportedly inflicted significant damage on two frigates, Admiral Makarov and Admiral Essen, raising concerns for the Indian Navy as these vessels share a design lineage with India's Talwar-class frigates. The attacks, which occurred on August 12, are alleged to have crippled the combat-management and strike capabilities of both ships, potentially rendering them out of service for over a year due to extensive repairs. Images suggest direct hits to critical systems, including vertical launch systems for missiles and radar equipment.

The recent news reports of heavy damage suffered by two Russian frigates in a Ukrainian attack on the Novorossiysk naval base in Russia have raised questions that have implications beyond Russia's Black Sea Fleet, particularly for the Indian Navy, which operates several warships derived from the same design lineage.

Ukraine had reported that the Russian frigates Admiral Makarov and Admiral Essen suffered major damage in the attack that took place on August 12. Images published by OSINT X handle Absolutely Reliable Source later appear to show the extent of the damage sustained by the two warships.

Both warships belong to Russia's Project 11356R Burevestnik class, a design based on the Talwar-class Project 11356 frigates built for the Indian Navy.

According to the battle damage assessment shared by the OSINT handle, the attack caused major damage to key systems aboard both Russian ships, crippling their strike and combat-management capabilities. The assessment claimed that both vessels could remain out of service for at least a year and require extensive dry-dock repairs.

Admiral Essen reportedly suffered direct hits to its bow, causing severe deformation of the deck and destroying its eight-cell 3S14 vertical launch system (VLS), which is used for Kalibr missiles, a land-attack cruise missile carried by Russia's surface vessels.

The ship's masts were destroyed, and the 3Ts-25E radar, TK-25 electronic warfare system and Tsentavr satellite communications equipment were knocked out, according to the report.

Its Trebovanie-M combat information and control system was also reportedly disabled, leaving the frigate without its crucial combat-management capabilities.

Admiral Makarov, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, too suffered similarly severe damage.

According to the assessment, strikes on its VLS caused an internal detonation and completely burned out its 3S14 launch shafts.

The ship's Trebovanie-M combat-management architecture, including radar, electronic warfare and communications systems, was also reported to have been destroyed, almost neutralising the flagship.

Implications for Indian Navy

What makes the destruction suffered by the two Russian warships important for India to take notice lie in the lineage of Admiral Makarov and Admiral Essen. Both these are Project 11356R frigates, which are based on the Talwar-class export vessels originally built for the Indian Navy.

The Indian Navy currently operates eight Project 11356 Talwar-class frigates — INS Talwar, INS Trishul, INS Tabar, INS Teg, INS Tarkash, INS Trikand, INS Tushil and INS Tamal. Two more are under construction at Goa Shipyard Limited, which would take the fleet to 10 vessels eventually.

The reported attack therefore offers a potentially important case study for India.

Since the Talwar class and subsequent Project 11356 derivatives use similar Russian-origin VLS and combat-management layouts, the damage highlights the need to reassess areas such as top-side protection, missile-magazine safety and passive defence against asymmetric drone attacks.

More importantly, the reported damage was inflicted while the vessels were inside the Novorossiysk naval base.

The ability of low-cost uncrewed surface vessels and aerial drones to penetrate traditional layered harbour defences and reportedly inflict serious damage on such  surface combatants shows the changing nature of threats facing naval fleets.

For the Indian Navy, which operates a sizeable and still-expanding fleet belonging to the same broad frigate lineage, the reported troubles of Admiral Makarov and Admiral Essen offer lessons on protecting its own warships against emerging asymmetric drone threats.

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