DISTRIBUTED MARITIME DENIAL: DRONE WARFARE IN THE BLACK SEA AND NATO ADAPTATION IN SEMI-ENCLOSED SEAS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbeuropaea.2026.1.07Keywords:
Drone warfare, Black Sea, maritime denial, NATO, semi-enclosed seas, unmanned systems, military innovationAbstract
This article examines how drone warfare in the Black Sea has reshaped the logic of maritime denial in semi-enclosed and constrained seas, and what lessons NATO should draw from Ukraine’s experience. It argues that Ukraine’s use of unmanned surface vessels, aerial drones, missiles, ISR, and adaptive targeting networks has not produced classical sea control, but has generated a form of distributed maritime denial that constrains Russia’s freedom of manoeuvre and raises the cost of naval power projection. Using a strategic studies framework, the article links drone warfare to deterrence by denial, cost imposition, and military innovation, while treating hybrid warfare as a secondary contextual lens. The Black Sea is presented as a theory-building case whose lessons are most directly relevant to NATO’s eastern and southeastern flanks, especially the Baltic and Black Sea regions, but only selectively transferable to wider constrained theatres such as the South China Sea.
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