They are cheap and easy to mass produce, can evade anti-aircraft defenses and hit targets with precision. you Drones Assault weapons have become Ukraine's weapon of choice against a better-armed adversary in a protracted conflict, and allow Kiev to carry the war into Russian territory.
In recent weeks, attacks Drones Ukrainians have damaged Russia's energy infrastructure, most recently, when they attacked a key oil refinery operated by Lukoil in the Volgograd region in the country's southwest.
Similar incidents occurred across Russia last month, including attacks on the Slavneft-Yanos oil refinery in the Yaroslavl region, 700 kilometers from the border with Ukraine; The other refinery is in Tuapse next to the Black Sea; to a storage facility in Klintsy, Bryansk Region; and a gas terminal in the Baltic Sea.
“Attacks on oil depots and storage facilities disrupt logistics and slow down combat operations,” says Olena Lapenko, an energy security expert at the Dixie Group, a Ukrainian think tank. The New York Times.
Investment in production Drones In fact, it continues to be defended by the commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Valery Zalushny, at a time when arms deliveries from the United States continue to be frozen due to the lack of Republican support in Congress. .
Ukraine's popular military chief, who was removed from his post and later reinstated by President Volodymyr Zelensky, has named the production of unmanned aerial vehicles as one of the priorities of the Ukrainian war effort.
In the article, Zalushny said that as the second anniversary of the start of the war approaches, Ukraine must find new ways and capabilities to gain an advantage over Russia.
“The challenge to our armed forces cannot be underestimated. It is to create an entirely new system of technological modernization,” Zalushny wrote, adding that such a system, Drones It has been mentioned that it could become operational in five months.
you Drones Assault systems have another advantage over other means of aerial warfare: they are more difficult to detect by anti-aircraft defense systems.
“Russia prided itself on its defenses. Sensors, different missile batteries, operational batteries, radars,” recalls Samuel Bendet, an analyst and expert on unmanned and robotic military systems at the Naois Center, a North American research center. site Business Insider. “Most of these defenses are designed to identify and destroy large targets such as missiles, helicopters and aircraft.”
Swarms led by a “Queen”.
One of the methods used by Ukraine is swarming Drones FPV (First person viewor first-person point of view, in a free translation), “drones-Rani”, which gives the order to identify and attack the target.
REUTERS/Inna Varenytsia
In an interview with a Russian newspaper IzvestiaA Russian soldier described an encounter with a mob Drones Led by a “queen” who sent a signal to a group Drones Small FPVs flew below it.
“I saw a group of about ten people Drones, 'Queen' somewhere above, at a higher altitude. Then the swarm suddenly descended and began to do its work,” said the Russian soldier Izvestia.
The best way to neutralize the swarm is to remove the “queen”. Drones Smaller ones depend on it to identify targets.
A recent example of the effectiveness of swarms Drones In the Donetsk region, at the end of January, a column of tanks and other armored vehicles was almost completely destroyed near the town of Novomykhailivka.
The attack was captured on cameras installed Drones Small and flying over the place, showing the devastation to the Russian column.
Photographs published by a British newspaper Tunnel And not independently verified, The Drones The FPV accelerates towards the Russian tanks and armored vehicles, the transmission abruptly stops just before impact. Pictures taken”drones-Rani” offers a panoramic scene, showing the tanks bursting into flames as the devices hit them.
“It's a war of missiles against armored vehicles. This time, the missiles are winning,” he says, as quoted by the British daily. GuardianGleb Molchanov, an operator Drones Ukrainian.
“Hardcore explorer. Extreme communicator. Professional writer. General music practitioner. Prone to fits of apathy.”