Russia's Ancient Flying Boats Are Bombers Now

A Beriev Be-12 has dropped depth charges on an apparent Ukrainian drone boat

The Beriev Be-12 flying boat has a bomb bay that can accommodate 6,600 pounds of munitions including torpedoes, depth charges, mines and sonobuoys.

But it’s been a while since the 60-year-old flying boats, a handful of which have lingered in service with the Russian navy mostly in patrol and rescue roles, have been called on to carry munitions—and much less to employ them in actual combat.

That has changed. Besieged by Ukraine’s drone boats—and, more recently, drone submarines—the Russian Black Sea Fleet is mostly huddling in ports in southern Russian and, to a lesser extent, Russian-occupied Crimea.

Sortieing alongside fast jets and helicopters, the few twin-prop Be-12s still flying from Crimea protect the surviving ships and subs. While Be-12s have been observed on counter-drone patrols since early in Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, it wasn’t until this week that we saw one drop bombs on an apparent drone boat.

Not bombs, actually. In fact, the munitions the Be-12 drops, in a video posted by the Fighterbomber channel, appear to be PLAB-250-120 depth charges. The depth charges explode just below the surface, indicating their hydrostatic fuzes have been set to go off at very shallow depth.