Flash Exposed the Weaknesses of the Enemy's Jet-Powered Suicide Drones
Russian “Shahed” jet-powered UAVs have a number of technical and financial shortcomings compared to conventional versions, but their range remains sufficient to carry out attacks on most regions of Ukraine.
Serhiy (Flash) Beskrestnov, a presidential advisor on the development of defense technologies, spoke about this in an interview. According to him, the jet engine increases the cost of each drone by $30,000–$40,000 and reduces its flight range. However, certain variants can travel distances ranging from 500–600 km to 900 km, allowing them to reach Lutsk, for example, by reducing the payload or adjusting the flight altitude.
The expert noted that the continued large-scale use of these UAVs against western Ukraine and their online control depend to a large extent on Belarus. The drones are equipped with LTE modems containing SIM cards from Russian carriers, which utilize roaming services from Belarusian base stations along the border. This allows Russia to receive data on the drones’ status and change their routes in real time to evade air defense systems. At the same time, Belarus has the technical capability to restrict or disable this roaming at any moment, which would significantly complicate the enemy’s control of the drones.
Source: “Glavkom.”
Flash reported on a new feature of the jet-powered Shahed drones’ flight paths during attacks on Kyiv.
Ukraine is conducting combat tests of at least four jet interceptors designed to counter Russian jet drones.
