Russia has painted at least one of its two Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates in the Black Sea with black camouflage, most likely to mislead Ukrainian drone operators, naval analyst H.I. Sutton reports in an article published by Naval News.

The information was obtained on the basis of satellite images, which show that the nose and stern of the Admiral Essen were painted with black paint. Naval News is “confident” about this information, noting that it’s possible the warship’s new paint scheme is an attempt to trick Ukrainian drone operators into thinking they have a less valuable target in front of them.

“Although not seen for decades, naval historians will quickly appreciate this trick,” says Sutton, recalling that during World War II the German Navy applied similar camouflage to its battleship KMS Bismarck, the largest battleship built by Nazi Germany.

Painting the bow and stern of a warship black or some other dark color is intended to make it look shorter and thereby confuse enemies as to its identity.

The Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates are playing an important role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, being the most powerful warships Russia still has in the Black Sea since the sinking of the Moskva last April.

Each frigate of this class can launch up to 8 Kalibr cruise missiles before returning to port, and they are used for numerous attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure facilities in the country.

Are the Russians worried that their ships might be attacked in port?

Naval News reminds that, despite the continuous strengthening of defense by the Russians, Ukrainian naval drones have repeatedly managed to enter the port of Sevastopol, where the base of the Russian fleet is located on the Black Sea, while not having time to cause significant damage.

“During these attacks, a human operator uses a camera to identify targets. Therefore, any trick that can disrupt their ability to identify the most valuable target will be considered worthy of attention by the Russians,” notes H. I. Sutton.

“It remains to be seen whether the new camouflage will be effective. From the Russian point of view, it may be better than nothing,” the naval analyst notes, adding that we could also see the return of other “old-fashioned” camouflage schemes if drones use camera sights to identify targets.

“Admiral Essen” is a sister ship of “Admiral Makarov”, which was shot down by Ukrainian naval drones in the port of Sevastopol at the end of October last year. Since then, Ukraine is believed to have developed a new naval drone specifically designed to attack Russia’s powerful Black Sea naval base.

The latest confrontation between the Russian fleet and Ukrainian drones in the Black Sea

The emergence of these satellite images of the Admiral Essen comes less than a month after Russia released video of what it claimed was a Ukrainian naval drone attack on the Russian reconnaissance ship Ivan Hurs in Turkey’s exclusive economic zone.

“Today, at 05:30 Moscow time (02:30 GMT), the Armed Forces of Ukraine made an unsuccessful attempt to attack three unmanned high-speed boats of the Black Sea Fleet “Ivan Gurs”, which provided security for Turk. Stream and Blue gas pipelines Stream,” the Ministry of Defense said in Moscow on May 24.

“All enemy boats were destroyed 140 kilometers northeast of the Bosphorus by the weapons systems of the Russian ship,” he added.

Images later released by the Ukrainians showed that at least one of the Navy ships had hit a target, although the extent of the damage was unknown.

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