Sea Denial: The Ukrainian Case Study and the Future of Naval Warfare
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines Ukraine's maritime campaign in the Black Sea as a contemporary case study in sea denial against a conventionally superior navy. Despite lacking a blue-water fleet, Ukraine effectively contested Russia's naval dominance through an integrated use of land-based anti-ship missiles, unmanned surface vehicles, special operations, and real-time intelligence—including support from Western ISR assets. High-profile incidents such as the sinking of the>Moskva and sustained strikes on Sevastopol illustrate how denial can be achieved without parity in platforms or tonnage, reaffirming and extending insights from theorists such as Milan Vego, Ian Speller, and Sam Tangredi. While Ukraine's methods build on long-standing traditions of asymmetric and denial-based strategies, their multi-domain application—combining unmanned systems, distributed operations, and data-driven targeting—underscores the evolving character of maritime conflict in the twenty-first century. By situating Ukraine's experience within the broader literature on sea denial and irregular maritime warfare, the article highlights both continuities and innovations, offering doctrinal lessons for modern navies. It argues that naval superiority alone is insufficient in contested littoral environments and concludes with recommendations emphasizing distributed lethality, infrastructure resilience, counter-drone defences, and training for degraded command-and-control conditions.
Source: Journal of Strategic Security
Author: Jithin Raveendran
Institution: Central University of Kerala
Subfield: Transportation
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4417043075