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| The Kamikaze Shahed-136 Drone, Game Changer on the Battlefields of Russia and Ukraine |
International Military - The Kamikaze Shahed-136 drone used by Russia appears to be a significant challenge for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This happens not without reason. The reason is, Russia also attacked Ukraine with a swarm of Iranian-made drones. This swarm attack involves multiple drones (five in number and up) being launched at once from the same rack to overwhelm enemy air defenses. In fact, it is alleged that Russian troops reportedly used 12 drones for a swarm attack.
Quoted from the Eurasian Times, the Kamikaze drone provides Russia with an alternative. This is because the drones can make the country cost-effective for its precious and expensive aircraft and cruise and ballistic missiles. Even if these drones were shot down, they would still deplete Ukraine's valuable surface-to-air missile (SAM) stockpile.
Read Also: Russia Successfully Uses Kamikaze Drones Against Ukraine With Glonass Satellite Guidance
Ukrainian Air Force Command spokesman Yurii Ihnat described the Shahed-136 as a small aerial target that flies mainly at low altitudes and is rarely detected on radar. Uzi Rubin, Israeli defense engineer, analyst and currently a Research Fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told the EurAsian Times “The advantage comes from the design of the Shahed-136 suicide UAV.” He explained that the Shahed-136 is a very small, simple, low and slow flying unmanned aerial vehicle.
However, it is equipped with a simple piston engine that drives a wooden propeller more like a model airplane than a war weapon. “The operation is very easy just upload the target coordinates and launch it with a small booster rocket and it is very difficult to detect by radar or electro-optical devices because of its small size (wingspan of about two meters), its slow speed. usually below the detection threshold of most radars and their small infrared signature," Rubin said.
Read Also: Specifications of the Iranian-made Shahed-136 Drone that Wary Ukrainian Soldiers
Quoted from Le Monde, the Shahed-136 is manufactured by the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company or HESA. This drone is shaped like a delta wing measuring 3.5 meters long with a wingspan of 2.5 meters and weighing about 200 kilograms. Its nose contains explosives as well as the optics needed for precision strikes.
Fired in salvos, the drone can be launched from a truck and fly at a speed of over 185 kilometers per hour. Using this drone, it is known that the Russian army has renamed the aircraft Geran-2 (Geranium-2).