A battle is forming in the skies of Ukraine and Russia as the ingenuity of drone engineers on both sides opens new opportunities and threats far beyond front lines. This was evident on Sunday, damaging a significant part of Kremlin’s strategies.
On the same occasion ,. The climb has triggered a new wave of innovations: Ukraine is developing a generation of drones designed to identify and slaughter other unmanned aerial vehicles (or UAVs). The goal is to reach the Iranian design shaned drones, which have a triangular structure and are mass produced in Russia.
Oleksandr Kamyshyn, advisor to Ukraine’s Minister of Strategic Industries, said in a recent interview that Ukraine is increasing the production of weapons that were successful in overthrowing Shahed drones in Kiev and the region around.
The issue has gained even more urgency as Russian bombings intensify, anticipating this week’s peace negotiations in Istanbul. In May, Russia has shown that it can launch hundreds of Shahed missiles regularly, signaling its growing capacity.
The growing drone attacks overwhelmed Ukrainian air defense systems and led to a larger number of civilians from civilians since US President Donald Trump began pressing the end of the fighting in February, with appeals to leaders of Russia and Ukraine.
New dynamic
The proliferation of cheap drone technology in recent years has radically changed battlefields, with traditionally powerful armed forces often losing. Low -cost weapons can destroy much higher equipment, including tanks, ships and even other more valuable drones.
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This trend was highlighted by Sunday’s operation that hit four Russian air bases, including one in eastern Siberia. The attacks damaged about a third of Russia’s strategic bombing fleet, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine estimated damage to at least $ 2 billion, according to a security service official who asked not to be identified, as the details are not public.
A similar dynamic occurred in Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, where the hethis successfully reached US surveillance drones with earth-air missiles. Houthis militants slaughtered at least seven Reaper drones, each costing about $ 30 million over a six -week period during the US bombing campaign, said the Associated Press in April. Soon after, Trump ordered the campaign interrupting and announced a ceasefire with the group.
The defense against drone attacks is historically expensive. Israel, which has the world’s most successful air defense system, tested in battle, depends mainly on expensive missiles to slaughter threats. In May, the Israeli Ministry of Defense recognized that it had used laser weapons during the ongoing war to prevent “dozens” of air attacks, including drones. Laser systems such as interceptor drones have much lower operating costs.
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Three national manufacturers manufacture Shahed fighters that cost about $ 5,000 each, according to Kamyshyn, advisor to the Minister of Industry. Executives interviewed for this report said that some developing interceptors can cost only $ 300 each.
The strategies they use and their degree of autonomy vary. Some seek to explode near an enemy drone to knock it down while others fly like a bullet and need to hit it.
What they have in common is that they are relatively cheap. Shaheds, with an estimated cost of about $ 35,000, are Russian’s favorite unidirectional attacks, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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Origin Robotics, a Latvian -based drone manufacturer, is among the many companies that seek to combat Shaheds. Origin will send test drones to Ukraine in June, which will explode near UAVs that approach them to destroy them.
“As soon as it approaches enough of a target, a woven detona and the target is hit by fragments,” Origin CEO Agris Kipurs said in an interview at a drone conference in Riga last week. – It is used exactly for this type of target: large and long range ammunition.
Although economic calculation is in favor of Ukraine, drones are not yet successful enough to replace other air defense systems, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Wayne Sanders.
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The idea of building drone interceptors found support at the highest level of Ukrainian leadership. Zelensky discussed Russia’s battlefield tactics and the increase in air bombing with his war council last week, and ordered his main military commanders and intelligence heads to investigate contracted.
“Now we have jets to slaughter drones,” Zelensky said, adding that they have faced a problem with Shahed’s attacks. “We are also advancing towards drone interceptors.”
Zelensky is also pressuring allies to hurt $ 30 billion by the end of the year to increase national weapons production.
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Limitations
Drone hunters also have other limitations. They cannot defend themselves against Russia’s most powerful missile systems, which are faster and have more firepower than Shaheds. Patriot Missiles, which costs between $ 3 million and $ 6 million each, are the most effective way to reach these weapons.
“US dependence has been evident both directly and indirectly,” said Sanders. “Direct financing from armedistic capabilities, as well as indirect investments in Ukrainian manufacturing skills so that they could develop their own industries.”
Currently, the alternative to intercepting drones is often soldiers with truck -mounted machine guns, a low -rate low -rate solution that gets worse when targets fly at higher altitudes. Kiev also uses his small fleet of F-16 fighters, donated by NATO allies to slaughter drones. Ukraine has suffered more than 20,000 long -distance drone attacks in more than three years of fighting.
Russian technology is not stopped either, according to Carl Larson, executive director of Defense Tech for Ukraine, an international group of volunteers that provides equipment for Ukraine.
Fixed wing russian drones are now often equipped with rear cameras and programmed to perform evasive maneuvers if they sparked a drone trying to intercept them, Larson said in an interview.
“It is immensely expensive, inefficient and, frankly, difficult to physically reach a drone with another drone,” he said.
Ukraine is developing fixed -wing drones that can reach Russian aircraft, as well as other drones that carry no retreating rifles for enemy aircraft, said Larson.
Skyfall, one of Ukraine’s largest drone producers, is improving its popular first-person vision model to intercept UAVs, according to a company spokesman who asked not to be identified due to security issues.
they became an essential weapon for both sides of the war. They can fly at speeds up to 160 km/h with small explosive loads.
These drones have already caused a radical reformulation of how the front is organized, forcing soldiers to avoid focusing on groups and pushing vehicles and other equipment much more behind trenches to avoid being hit.
Because FPVs are increasingly used to reach other flying objects, they can also change the skies.
Skyfall’s Shrike FPV hunting version costs between $ 300 and $ 500, depending on the configuration, and can reach recognition and attack drones, the spokesman said.
In April, the 63rd Ukrainian Brigade, operating in the front of the country, published a video that seemed to show Shrikes aiming at a Supercam drone and a Merlin, one of Russia’s most sophisticated recognition drones. The video could not be confirmed independently.
The spokesman said shrikes cannot attack the shaheds, which travel at much higher altitudes.
“We are focused on banning suicide FPV drones and bombing drones,” said Larson of Defense Tech for Ukraine.
While Europe and the US are good at building “sophisticated and expensive systems,” Ukraine needs its own scalable and low cost solutions to contain Russian attacks, he said.
