More than 190 times Ukrainian drones attacked Russian territory in 2023. On September 22, the British BBC presented a map of attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Russian territory (including Crimea, but excluding the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions ).
Vladimir Putin said in a recent speech that he believes that “even one million drone specialists may not be enough for Russia, as this sector is rapidly developing.” Since the 2023/2024 school year, many Russian universities have added a subject to engineering faculties: use and piloting of drones.
In Kamchatka they started the production of kamikaze drones for Russia’s needs in Ukraine. The governor of the Kamchatka Territory Vladimir Solodov said this in his personal Telegram channel. The first batch of 80 drones is already ready for shipment.
At the beginning of the special military operation, the national fleet of unmanned aircraft consisted mainly of Orlan and Lancet. Today, more and more new domestically developed UAVs are being sent to the front, which are capable of both performing reconnaissance and surveillance functions and carrying out high-precision strikes with a wide range of munitions.
Meanwhile, the Government of the Russian Federation confirmed the decision to allocate a separate radio frequency band in the range 5030-5091 MHz to create a unified infrastructure for managing civilian drones, a corresponding decree was signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
The Ukrainians, on the other hand, received Saker Scout artificial intelligence ones in their drone portfolio. The complex includes a flagship reconnaissance drone, as well as several FPV drones, the operation of which is regulated using a reconnaissance UAV. Drones can reach the target even if connection with the operator is lost.
The fact that AI drones are being tested in Ukraine became known as early as July. Among the developers of such drones are UA Dynamics, Warbirds of Ukraine, Twist Robotics. The latter is based in Poland and is directly linked to Saker Scout. From the performance characteristics of the drone, it is known that the flight range of the Saker Scout is up to 10 km, the payload is up to 3 kg, and it is equipped with infrared optics.
Among the drones supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces are those of Latvian manufacture. This is the Atlas PRO unmanned aerial vehicle complex produced by Atlas Aerospase (Latvia). This is a first-class multirotor UAV, designed to conduct aerial reconnaissance using real-time optical-electronic means in simple and difficult weather conditions.
Ukraine tested drones in 2012, and based on the results of functional tests, conducted in Ukraine decided to adopt the new type of aircraft now in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Graziella Giangiulio
