Posted on 09/17/2022 7:08:09 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
Russia has inflicted serious damage on Ukrainian forces with recently introduced Iranian drones, in its first wide-scale deployment of a foreign weapons system since the war began, Ukrainian commanders say.
Over the past week, Shahed-136 delta-wing drones, repainted in Russian colors and rebranded as Geranium 2, started appearing over Ukrainian armor and artillery positions in the northeastern Kharkiv region, said Col. Rodion Kulagin, commander of artillery of Ukraine’s 92nd Mechanized Brigade.
In his brigade’s operational area alone, the Iranian drones have destroyed two 152-mm self-propelled howitzers, two 122-mm self-propelled howitzers, as well as two BTR armored infantry vehicles, he said.
Before the current wide-scale use of the Shaheds, Russia carried out a test last month, striking a U.S.-supplied M777 155-mm towed howitzer with the drone, Col. Kulagin said. Another Iranian drone malfunctioned and was recovered, he said.
So far, the Iranian drones seem to have been mostly deployed in the Kharkiv region, where the 92nd Brigade and other Ukrainian forces carried out a major offensive this month, retaking some 8,500 square kilometers, or roughly 3,300 square miles, of land occupied by Russia and seizing or destroying hundreds of Russian tanks, artillery pieces and armored carriers.
“In other areas, the Russians have overwhelming artillery firepower, and they manage with that. Here, they no longer have that artillery advantage, and so they have started to resort to these drones,” Col. Kulagin said.
Independent experts who examined photographs of recent drone wreckage from the Kharkiv region say that it appears to be Shahed-136, the latest evolution of Tehran’s delta-wing design.
Scott Crino, founder and chief executive of Red Six Solutions LLC, a strategic consulting firm, said the Shahed-136 could provide Russia with a “potent counterweight” to the high-tech weapons systems, such as Himars missile launchers, that the U.S. has provided to Ukraine.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Where are all those drones the U.S. provided to Ukraine?? Why are they seemingly absent? Do they not work? Any info?
Ukraine ping
Vaden: [Where are all those drones the U.S. provided to Ukraine?? Why are they seemingly absent? Do they not work? Any info?]
There are no silver bullets. Ultimately, Ukrainians have to adapt faster than the Russians. They don’t need to be perfect - just better and quicker. If Western aid keeps up and doesn’t fall behind Russian efforts to ramp up its war effort, the weight of that aid should turn the tide in Ukraine’s favor, assuming neither the Ukrainian government nor people lose heart and decide to give up.
Was much more enamored with the Israeli Spike fiberoptic guided man-portable missile but nobody listened to me back then.
They are saving a ton of stuff, it appears they were waiting for manpower and conditions
Your comment hits at the heart of what I was getting at in a roundabout way. Iran’s drones are small but are larger than the ones Ukraine has. Plus, they have a bigger warhead.
The US has focused on big drones like the Predator, but smaller drones seem to be sneakier and deadlier. Makes me worry about our own arsenal of small drones. Perhaps we should be finding a way to disable the small ones in the air.
Anthropomorphizing machines. Does that raise the price when they are haggling?
These can be autonomous so good luck with that. Onboard AI.
12k km+ range and can loiter. Pretty advanced drones. Upthread there is a video of a salvo launch off of a flatbed that looks like a Mercedes-Benz Atego 1530 L 4x2. Given the known wheelbase the size of these drones can be estimated to exceed 1.2 meters in length. It is very difficult to estimate the warhead size but my guess is it exceeds 50lb of high explosives in a shaped charge config.
Not insignificant at all. Would give US forces problems en mass.
Mark, got any input on this #39?
Large Silly String® canisters that entangle the blades on the rotors.
Good.
Good?
So you support Putin’s killing of Slavs?
I believe the defeat of this nato/neocon proxy war against Russia will be a good thing...
This is not a proxy war against Russia.
This is Putin’s war
The taste.
The term kamikaze is reference to Japanese piloted planes that were in effect human piloted bombs. So, a kamikaze drone is a bomb that flies to the target and is destroyed on contact.
The German V1 was I believe a cruise missile that was imprecise in targeting. A present day cruise missile is very accurate and being pilot less is in fact a drone.
The catalogue of drones is vast. A drone can be anything from an unpiloted camara carrying toy to a large aircraft carrying an array of explosive weaponry. A drone is an aircraft piloted by remote control. Thus a cruise missile in the present context is a drone.
A drone is a male bee that has only one function. That function is to fly high and fast and have sex with the queen who is airborne for the singular purpose of having sex. A drone can’t defent the colony because it has no stinger. After the sex, the colony tolerates but pays no real attention to the drones that are now superfluous.
So, the terming of remote guided bomb carrying aircraft as drones is actually a misnomer. Drones can’t sting
chuckle
How dare them:
US Signs $2.2 Million Contract, Orders Switchblade 600 Kamikaze Drones For Ukraine
A document published by the Pentagon has announced $2.2 million contract for Switchblade 600 kamikaze drones to be delivered to Ukraine under USAI and the PDA.
$3666 each?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.