The Russian army is seeking to increase the share of jet attack drones to 50% in air attacks against Ukraine. This was stated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrsky, emphasizing the need for technological modernization of domestic interceptor drones to counter this new threat.
The Russian army is seeking to increase the share of jet attack drones to 50% in air attacks against Ukraine. This was stated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrsky, emphasizing the need for technological modernization of domestic interceptor drones to counter this new threat.
As noted in the message of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the official Facebook page, the consequences of the daily air strikes of the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory would have been much more severe without the systematic development and strengthening of the capabilities of the domestic «small air defense». Currently, the majority of neutralized Russian «Shaheeds» and other means of attack are the result of the work of Ukrainian UAV interceptors.
Syrsky noted that the Russian army regularly changes the tactics of using drones, increasing their number and qualitative characteristics.
«The enemy plans to increase the share of jet attack drones to 50%. This poses new challenges for us that require a timely response,» the Commander-in-Chief said.
To counter the challenges, a special working meeting has already been held, at which proposals were considered to increase the effectiveness of Ukrainian air defense and further stages of modernization of domestic drones.
Oleksandr Syrsky also said that during May, Ukrainian interceptor drones operating in three echelons of air defense eliminated more than 3,500 enemy drones of various types. The second echelon, which is responsible for the Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), demonstrated the highest efficiency — they have more than 1,200 downed devices per month. Currently, work is underway to form the fourth echelon of air defense, which should cover two more regions of Ukraine.
Jet attack drones such as the Shahed-238 and their counterparts have significantly higher speeds than conventional piston-engine versions of drones. This significantly reduces the time it takes for them to be detected and intercepted by traditional mobile fire groups armed with machine guns.
Previously, a group of OSINT analysts led by Andrew Perpetua examined over 20,000 open-source applications of Ukrainian interceptor drones. They found out which models are capable of hitting even jet-powered «shaheeds.»
dev.ua also reported that the Japanese company Terra Drone plans to significantly expand the production of Ukrainian interceptor drones Terra A1 and Terra A2, as well as invest in the development of new jet drones .
