The in Ukraine continues. The latest advance in the field of unmanned vehicles corresponds to the russian sidewhich has achieved cheap ‘Molniya’ to be able to use them not only in attacks but also in reconnaissance missions.
Thanks to this, Russian forces are replacing more expensive surveillance drones, such as the Supercam and Orlan-10, with ‘Molniya’ drones. The latter are Made of light and cheap materials: plywood, foam and aluminum.
In statements to Serhii Beskrestnov, advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, has reported that Moscow is equipping some of its ‘Molniya’ drones with additional batteries (in order to increase autonomy), a high definition camera and a mesh modem to improve communications.
Until now, ‘Molniya’ unmanned vehicles were classified as unidirectional attack drones whose operation was based on carrying a warhead and exploding upon impact.
However, now The Russian Army is adapting this low-cost drone to carry out other types of missionsas, as cited from Business Insider“carry smaller quadcopters with first-person view (FPV), as a mothership.”
A drone between 10 and 15 times cheaper than other reconnaissance drones
The advisor to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has noted that the unmanned vehicles ‘Molniya’ They are between 10 and 15 times cheaper than the most used reconnaissance drones by Russia, such as the Supercam S-350.
Specifically, One unit of the Supercam S-350 drone has an estimated cost of 100,000 dollars (about 86,500 eurosat the current exchange rate). Consequently, the economic difference between carrying out a reconnaissance mission with a ‘Molniya’ unmanned vehicle or with a Supercam S-350 drone is very large.
In this way, Russia, beyond being able to carry out these missions more frequently, obtains a savings that can be used to allocate more economic resources to other military areas.
