Military — 2026-08-10

Russia Deploys Anti-Drone Nets Over Nuclear Submarines at Kamchatka as Ukrainian Threat Extends Thousands of Miles

BLUFMoscow's rapid extension of anti-drone netting to Pacific SSBN berths 4,500 miles from Ukraine reveals Russian naval command now treats long-range unmanned threats to sea-based nuclear deterrent assets as credible.

Satellite imagery from Vantor collected on August 4, reported by Business Insider and The War Zone, shows more than half a dozen Russian submarines covered in anti-drone netting at the Rybachiy base on Kamchatka's Pacific coast, roughly 4,500 miles from Ukraine, up from two netted submarines in imagery from May 12. Defense Express, using the name Vilyuchinsk for the base, reported eight submarines under the netting, including three Borei-class ballistic-missile submarines armed with Bulava ICBMs, two Yasen-class attack submarines, two Project 949A Antey submarines, and one Akula-class boat 3. Floating boom barriers have also been installed around the berths to guard against uncrewed surface vessels 23. Separately, UK Ministry of Defence imagery taken on June 13 showed three of four Kilo-class submarines at Russia's Novorossiysk base on the Black Sea fitted with counter-UAS cages over their conning towers, a measure UK officials called preventive 2.

Analysis
Russian imagery shows anti-drone netting expanding from two to over half a dozen submarines at Kamchatka's Rybachiy base between May and August, with Borei-class SSBNs carrying Bulava ICBMs prioritized over the fourth uncaged Kilo-class boat at Novorossiysk, indicating Moscow triages defensive investment by strategic value rather than uniform base security and now judges long-range drone threats credible even at Pacific bases once assumed safe by distance. Because the netting counters only short-range FPV attacks, Russia's actual reliance remains on Kamchatka's remoteness rather than active defense, a posture Ukraine's Spiderweb-style deep-strike reach increasingly undercuts. Sourcing rests on a single primary account (Business Insider analyzing Vantor imagery) with War Zone and Defense Express amplifying rather than independently confirming, so the expansion could equally reflect routine fleet-wide adoption of a now-standard countermeasure rather than response to a specific threat indication.

3 sources