Satellite imagery taken on August 4 showed Russian Navy submarines at Rybachiy on the Kamchatka Peninsula wrapped in nets meant to protect them from drone attacks. The images showed several different submarines fully covered, turning a quiet mooring into a protected enclosure.
The timing matters because the new coverage was visible in recent imagery, not as a one-off construction effort. TWZ obtained the images from Vantor, and Business insider first reported them, giving a rare look at how Russia is adapting its naval base defenses in real time.
Rybachiy is the homeport for the vast majority of Borei and Borei-A class nuclear ballistic missile submarines in service in Russia today, along with other guided missile and attack submarines assigned to the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet. That makes the protective netting more than a local precaution. It places counter-UAS measures over one of the most sensitive parts of Russia's sea-based nuclear force.
The imagery also shows how the defenses were put in place. In pictures from May and August, crane barges were used to help erect the nets around submarines at their moorings, while floating booms were strung around the piers. The setup suggests a layered effort to slow or deflect drones before they can reach the boats.
But the need for the cages is also a reminder of how exposed the submarines are in port. They sit partially submerged, yet their conning towers remain above the waterline, leaving a fixed point that can still be shielded even when the hull itself is in the water. That is why the visible solution is not a full cover of the boats, but armor screens and netting around the parts that stay exposed.
A separate set of images from the British Ministry of Defense, taken on June 13 and published from Vantor imagery, showed the same defensive logic at work in Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. There, several Kilo class attack submarines were partially submerged in port, and three of the four boats appeared to have anti-drone armor screens over their conning towers. British authorities said the cages were a preventive measure tied to Ukraine's growing ability to strike targets farther from the front line.
That does not mean Russia is done hardening its submarine fleet. The open question is whether the Russian Navy will extend these Russian submarine anti-drone defenses beyond Rybachiy and Novorossiysk, or whether these bases are being treated as the first line of a wider response to drone threats that now reach far beyond Ukraine.
