Russia equips its cheapest -room drones, a sign of prompt adaptation to Ukraine's efforts to develop effective shahed drones, Business Insider reports.
The Ukrainian unit Wu Samurai, a formation of the 117 Mechanized Brigade, specialized in the anti-Drone war, published a registration on Tuesday that captures a gerbera drone flying with surveillance cameras installed on the back. The Gerbera variant is inspired by Shahed Iranian drones and is one of the cheapest Russia unanswered vehicles, which are often used as a bait in major attacks on Ukraine.
The filming was made by an integral drone, designed to hunt large Russian drones, and show two differently oriented rooms, one up, and the other to what is in front of the drone.
According to the Wu Samurai Telegram channel, the interceptor drone has successfully hit the drone.
“Gerbera was surprised in a two -room avoidance maneuver in the back – she didn't help,” the unit wrote. It is not clear exactly when and where the images were filmed. The 117 Regiment was fighting in Donets.
The clip that surprises one of the cheapest Russian platforms, now commonly encountered in the war, is an additional sign that Russia could try to extend a tactic to preserve the drones that Moscow has previously tried on more expensive human crew, notes Business Insider.
In recent months, Ukrainian troops have increasingly reported meetings with Russian recognition drones, such as supercar, equipped with sensors or cameras meant to help air platforms to avoid interceptors.
On September 7, the prominent Ukrainian blogger specialized in drones, the “flash” Beskrestnov Serhi, posted a video of what he called to be a series radio signal detector, discovered on a supermarket drone. Beskrestnov explained that, once we superc, it detects an external radio signal – signaling that another drone is probably near – it is scheduled to engage in avoidance maneuvers.
As for a large part of the recognition drones, this usually means instant plunging to take speed and distance themselves from an interceptor.
Russia adapts to Ukrainian drones
On the other hand, recognition drones such as Zala and Supercam are much more expensive than Gerbera, produced at a cost of $ 10,000, according to the estimates of Ukrainian officials of 2024. The cheaper drone is frequently used as a bait for Shahed, and Russia launches it in strong swarms of hundreds of devices to overwhelm Ukraine defense.
In response, Ukraine has strengthened its anti-aircraft forces by developing low-cost FPV drones to hunt and hit the shahed drones.
Considered a concept of niche, innovative, just two years ago, the interceptors were prioritized at the end of the year, as Russia has intensified its drone attacks. Currently Kiev aims to reach an annual production of one million interceptors.
The Wu Samurai clip shows that, in response, Russia even equips its cheapest unmanned vehicles with attacks to avoid attacks, an indication of the importance that the interceptor drones gain in the war.
If they are widely implemented on long -range attack drones and baits, rear rooms and radio detectors could put new difficulties in Ukraine pilots. With current technology, drone pilots must be already enough for identifying and following Drone Shahed and Gerbera in a vast three-dimensional environment.
Moscow gerbera changing tactics could have implications beyond Ukraine, as the West also studies ways to combat such human crew systems. Earlier this month, Poland and NATO said they had shot several Russian drones that illegally entered the Polish airspace.
Although Warsaw has revealed little about the platforms and weapons used to destroy the drones, it is very likely that the alliance has used expensive air-air missiles to target gerbera drones.
Thus, on September 18, Poland signed a memorandum of cooperation with Ukraine, which also includes the study of how Kiev carries out air defense with low costs.
