ARTICLE: Sirena, the Ukrainian naval drone that turns a Sidewinder into a naval weapon

Maxime Marquette

2026-06-22 15:19:31

Speed, range, endurance: the numbers that matter

The Sirena reaches ninety kilometers per hour on the water. It operates eight hundred kilometers from its base and can remain at sea for twenty-four hours.

Its 300-kilogram payload can carry both the Scorpion V5 and the SeaDRAGON simultaneously.

A trimaran designed for the open sea and rough weather

The trimaran hull offers superior stability compared to monohulls—an essential requirement for the SeaDRAGON launcher.

The Black Sea is choppy and rough. An unstable drone cannot aim properly. The Sirena was designed to fire in all weather conditions.

Ninety km/h, eight hundred kilometers of range, twenty-four hours of endurance, Sidewinder missiles on board—the Sirena is an unmanned frigate.

The SeaDRAGON: Turning the Sidewinder into a Naval Weapon

The AIM-9M Sidewinder Adapted for Naval Use

The SeaDRAGON is the naval version of the CITP’s DRAGON. It carries AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles adapted for launch from a surface platform.

The AIM-9M is an infrared-guided air-to-air missile with an estimated range of eight to ten kilometers. Targets from the sea include enemy helicopters, patrol aircraft, and drones.

The Magura V7 Precedent in May 2025

In May 2025, the Magura V7 shot down two Russian Su-30SMs with air-to-air missiles. The Sirena follows in the footsteps of the naval FrankenSAM.

What once seemed impossible has become a documented reality. The SeaDRAGON raises the stakes with a more precise missile in the Western arsenal.

A surface drone shooting down fighter jets—absurd in 2021. In 2025, the Magura did it. In 2026, the Sirena is making it a doctrine. Ukraine has changed naval warfare.

The Scorpion V5: Onboard Electronic Warfare

300 megahertz to 6 gigahertz, with a range of 30 kilometers

The Scorpion V5 operates from 300 MHz to 6 GHz, with a range of thirty kilometers. It disrupts communications, GNSS, and drone control channels.

The Sirena approaches a Shahed zone and jams their operator links before they reach their destination.

The Scorpion V5 against the Shaheds: a new capability

The Shaheds fly using GPS links. The Scorpion V5 disrupts these links within a 30-kilometer radius.

It is a lightweight, airborne air defense system. The Sirena doesn’t just fire—it first electronically blinds the threat.

Jamming first, then shooting down—the Sirena combines electronic jamming with kinetic strike. It’s the combination every defender dreams of mastering.

The Pelican V1 Radar: See Before You Decide

An Integrated Detection and Targeting Radar

The Pelican V1 radar, integrated into the Sirena, detects and tracks air and surface threats.

The Pelican V1 is the third component—along with the Scorpion V5 and the SeaDRAGON—that makes the Sirena a complete integrated defense system.

Detect, jam, shoot down: a complete sequence

The Pelican V1 detects. The Scorpion V5 jams. The SeaDRAGON fires. The sequence is fully automatable.

Three integrated systems weighing just three hundred kilograms—that’s what sets the Sirena apart from every other naval drone at Eurosatory 2026.

Detect, jam, shoot down—all on a single, unmanned drone with a payload of 300 kilograms. Ukraine has created a pocket frigate. This is not science fiction.

The Balikatan 2026 Exercises: The Magura in the Philippines

A Ukrainian Drone Tested in the Asia-Pacific Region

In May 2026, during the Balikatan exercises in the Philippines, Magura drones were deployed by U.S. and Philippine forces—the first time outside the Black Sea.

This deployment sends a message to China: Ukrainian naval technology is relevant in all enclosed waters around the world.

The Sirena as the Logical Successor to the Magura in the Indo-Pacific

Where the Magura paved the way, the Sirena goes a step further. Its AIM-9M missiles and Scorpion V5 surpass the Magura’s capabilities.

For Indo-Pacific nations keeping an eye on Beijing, the Sirena represents a credible, affordable, and combat-tested asymmetric option.

Ukrainian drones facing off against the Chinese navy in the Philippines—Ukraine isn’t just fighting for itself. It is defending the West across all theaters.

The naval FrankenSAM concept: combining Soviet and Western engineering

AIM-9M on a platform born amid the bombs

The FrankenSAM concept integrates Western missiles onto improvised launchers. On land, documented results against Shahed drones and cruise missiles.

The SeaDRAGON on the Sirena is the naval version of this principle: a U.S. AIM-9M missile guided by Ukrainian radar. A coalition of engineering expertise.

Upcoming integrations: AIM-9X Block II and ST-100

The land-based DRAGON will soon integrate the AIM-9X Block II and the ST-100 missile. These upgrades will naturally extend to the naval SeaDRAGON.

Each integration increases range and lethality. The Sirena is not a finished weapon—it is an evolving platform.

A Ukrainian drone armed with an American Sidewinder, guided by Ukrainian radar—that’s what the West can achieve when it stops thinking and starts building.

Ukraine's Naval Strategy Without Exposed Sailors

No human lives on the naval front lines

The Sirena, like the Magura and the Sea Trident, embodies a fundamental doctrine of Ukrainian naval warfare: no sailors exposed on the front lines.

Surface drones enable offensive and defensive naval operations without risking human lives. This is a moral and strategic advantage that few militaries can claim.

A naval ecosystem covering all domains

Surface, submarine, and air—Ukraine is building an integrated naval defense system from the ground up. The Sirena serves as its anti-air and electronic warfare component.

A Sea Trident submarine, a Sirena on the surface, and UAVs in the air—the Black Sea is becoming a hostile environment for the Russian fleet.

No sailors exposed, three domains covered, and no budget for submarines—Ukraine has found the solution that small nations have been seeking for decades.

The SeaDRAGON Confronts Russian Aircraft: A Credible Threat

The documented precedent: two Su-30SMs shot down

The Magura V7 shot down two Su-30SMs in May 2025. This fact has been documented and confirmed. It is this precedent that justifies the SeaDRAGON.

A Su-30SM costs between thirty and fifty million dollars. An armed Sirena costs a fraction of that. The economic disparity is stark.

Russian aircraft must now monitor the sea below

Russian pilots flying over the Black Sea must now monitor the surface. A Sirena can be anywhere, invisible to radar, traveling at 90 km/h.

This constraint alters Russian flight profiles. The SeaDRAGON has changed the equation without even firing a missile.

When Russian pilots look down below them to search for drones armed with Sidewinders, Ukraine has already won a decisive psychological battle. Fear is a weapon.

SpetsTechnoExport and CITP: The Architects of the Invisible

The CITP, the brain behind the DRAGON system and its variants

The CITP is the designer of the DRAGON and its variants, including the SeaDRAGON: the institution that integrates Soviet and Western missiles onto adapted launchers.

This integration capability is rare. It requires mastery of the electronic protocols, guidance interfaces, and mechanical constraints of each missile.

SpetsTechnoExport: Ukraine’s official defense exporter

SpetsTechnoExport is Ukraine’s state-owned arms exporter. Its presence at Eurosatory 2026 with the Sirena signifies that this system is ready for export.

For NATO countries seeking to strengthen their coastal defenses, the Sirena is now officially available.

SpetsTechnoExport at Eurosatory with a Sidewinder-armed drone—Ukraine is no longer asking for aid. It is offering its own weapons. This reversal of roles is historic.

The Geopolitical Dimension: A Message to Russia, China, and Iran

The Black Sea Under Increasing Ukrainian Control

The Russian Black Sea Fleet has lost the Moskva, submarines, and frigates. The Sirena adds an anti-air threat to this hostile environment.

Russia no longer controls the Black Sea as it did before 2022. With the Sirena, Ukraine is establishing a low-cost, high-lethality anti-access zone.

A model for allies facing China

Taiwan, the Philippines, and Vietnam are seeking means of asymmetric resistance against Beijing in the South China Sea.

The Sirena, already tested during the Balikatan exercises, meets this need exactly. Ukraine is not only exporting a weapon—it is exporting a doctrine.

What Ukraine is building in the Black Sea is the doctrine that Taiwan and the Philippines will study in their confrontations with China. Asymmetric naval warfare now has its model.

What Sirena Reveals About the Ukrainian Defense Industry

Integration, Innovation, and Development Speed

Sirena at Eurosatory 2026: three integrated systems—Scorpion V5, SeaDRAGON, and Pelican V1. Months of development and testing went into every detail.

Ukraine achieved this amid bombardment, with a defense industry that didn’t exist five years ago. It’s an industrial feat.

Speed as an absolute competitive advantage

Western systems take decades to enter service. Sirena went from concept to global unveiling in record time.

Development speed is a strategic weapon. The enemy cannot anticipate what will be available in six months. Ukraine exploits this unpredictability.

It takes ten years to approve an arms program in a democracy; for Ukraine, it takes eighteen months. Bureaucracy is also a weapon—or a defeat.

The Future of Sirena: Toward a Coordinated Fleet of Naval Drones

Swarms of Sirena as a Coastal Defense Strategy

One Sirena is a threat. Ten working in concert: an access-denial zone. A hundred in a swarm: a drone navy capable of keeping an entire fleet at bay.

The Ukrainian doctrine saturates the airspace with inexpensive autonomous platforms that are difficult to intercept all at once.

Integration with NATO Command Networks

To reach its full potential, the Sirena must integrate into NATO networks: real-time targeting, friend-or-foe identification, and coordination with land-based defenses.

Once this integration is complete, the Sirena will be as much a component of NATO’s defense as it is a Ukrainian weapon.

A swarm of Sirena drones integrated with NATO command in real time—that is the next step. Ukraine has already proven that it moves quickly.

A ticket for each Western defense minister

The Sirena as a Case for Providing More Funding to Ukraine

Every euro invested in the Sirena, the SeaDRAGON, and the Scorpion V5 is a euro invested in the maritime defense of the entire Alliance.

Ukraine is not a bottomless pit. It is a war laboratory producing innovations that no nation at peace would have developed in a decade.

Failing to fund this means missing a historic turning point

Nations that have hesitated to fund Ukraine have missed out on the greatest revolution in naval weaponry since the Exocet missile.

The Sirena is not just a Ukrainian weapon. It is an offer to the West: to co-develop the naval defense of tomorrow or to watch others do it.

Failing to fund the Sirena means paying ten times as much in ten years for something less effective. History remembers those who lag behind.

Conclusion: The Sirena serves as a warning to all navies around the world

A drone that changes the rules without asking permission

The Sirena doesn’t ask for permission. It changes the rules. A Sidewinder fired from the sea at an aircraft in flight: that’s the new reality.

Admirals planning operations in the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the South China Sea—all must factor this in.

What Ukraine Is Proving Once Again

Ukraine is proving that necessity is the mother of invention, that survival accelerates engineering. Paradoxically, this war is also a war for Western defense.

The Sirena is a message to defense ministries around the world: the future of naval warfare is unmanned, integrated, and Ukrainian.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist