Ukraine’s small navy uses World War I tactics to confuse its enemy

• The Ukrainian Navy has released images of ships with what is likely dazzling camouflage paint.
• This stems from a World War I tactic intended to make it more difficult for the enemy to judge a ship’s speed and direction.
• A naval expert told BI that this tactic has limited utility, but could be useful against drones.

The Ukrainian Navy has revealed a new paint job on some of its ships, which appear to have adopted a World War I tactic of using dazzle camouflage.

The Ukrainian Navy shared the images on social media on Thursday, showing versions of the painting.

The ships included at least one small armored artillery boat and one island-class patrol boat, according to the military site MilitaryNYI.

The boats were photographed participating in a demonstration for naval experts from Denmark, which cooperates with Ukraine on various naval issues, the Ukrainian Navy said. said.

It is not known exactly when the paint work was applied.

In the photos, the boats feature distinctive irregular patterns in different shades of gray, likely a design approach intended to confuse enemy onlookers.

The idea is that the different shapes trick the eye, making it difficult to calculate a ship’s speed and direction.

It remains to be seen what advantage this will actually give Ukrainian boats in modern warfare.

“It appears to be a dazzling camouflage,” Sidharth Kaushal, a sea power expert at the U.K.’s Royal United Services Institute, told Business Insider.

He said the tactic could have some utility against optical sensors – on drones, for example – “but would have less value against radar-guided threats.”

Dazzle camouflage first appeared during World War I as a means of confusing enemy submarines and reducing their ability to effectively target torpedoes.

However, it has also seen some modern use.

In 2021, the Royal Navy’s HMS Tamar was repainted in dazzling camouflage to give it a “distinct identity” before heading out on tour, the BBC reported.

In July 2023, Russia also resorted to a similar strategy: painting his ships with blocks of black at each end in an apparent attempt to make them appear smaller and therefore more difficult to hit accurately.

At the time, the Russian Black Sea Fleet was the target of Ukraine, which was use long range missiles and drones to eliminate ships.

This resulted in the relocation of a large part of the Russian fleet from the strategic port of Sevastopol, in Crimea, to the more distant port of Novorossysk.

The Ukrainian Navy does not have any large ships in active service and consists mainly of small ships, like those seen in recent images.

Denmark’s recently announced cooperation with Ukraine aims to resolve issues of protecting Ukrainian ports and securing the Black Sea grain corridor, as well as the removal of naval mines and help it develop a more modern fleet, the Ukrainian navy said.

In October, Denmark announcement a $340 million aid package for Ukraine, which included new weapons and equipment.