The Marine Corps makes single-use UAVs that are difficult for the Russians to detect and suppress. The strongest carry up to 3 kg of explosives.
Soldiers of the 35th Marine Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with their own hands assemble kamikaze drones and then destroy Russian equipment in the Donetsk region. They showed the operation of the plane to TSN journalists.
Depending on its components, small quadrocopters lift a warhead weighing up to 1 kg and explode when it hits any object, thanks to an electric fuze built into the projectile. Some drones are equipped with improvised fragmentation munitions that are particularly effective against Russian infantry groups. “Bombs” are sometimes made from explosives found in Iran’s downed Shahed drones.
According to the Marine Corps, a drone costs about $500 and is disposable. Sometimes the army writes messages for the Russians on the bullets.
“It flies in one direction and has no duty to return home. It has such a duty – to die for Ukraine,” the operators say.
The main disadvantage of the “kamikaze” is called its short flight range – about 3 km, so the operator must be quite close to the place of attack. At the same time, small quadcopters are more difficult to track than Iranian Shahed drones.
“Hostile countermeasures have a hard time seeing it, it flies on such frequencies, the enemy sees it as a cell phone, it’s better than other drones,” said one of the pilots.
The largest “hunt”, destroyed by the 35th brigade with the help of kamikaze drones, was a Russian tank. The combat vehicle was firing at the infantry on the front line, the operator noticed it from a bird’s eye view, flew around and crashed into the stern.
The head of the UAV project with the call sign “Gagarin” in the 35th brigade told the ICTV channel how the kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicles were mounted. First of all, the Marine Corps orders components from Europe and China, and then the military assembles it with the help of expert volunteers. They provide the required flight range for specific combat missions, so depending on component quality and weather conditions it can reach up to 12 km and speeds up to 80 km/h.
“When working in Ugledar, the distance to the enemy was about 400 m, the most comfortable distance for us is 3-6 km.
As for the warhead, recently the Marine Corps has designed more powerful drones that can lift up to 3 kg of explosive. Its abilities are currently being tested in combat conditions to be finalized in the future.
Gagarin added that drones use unusual control frequencies, making them difficult to detect and suppress with electronic warfare. Finding UAVs is also hampered by the height of the flight, as operators can only fly them a few meters above the ground.
In early February, the 501st Separate Marine Battalion demonstrated how it used drones to attack Russian soldiers on the front line. UAVs throw grenades that cause the invaders to scatter in fear or fall to the ground if they don’t kill them.
Meanwhile, the military is testing a $2,000 Ukrainian Cobra kamikaze drone. It can carry 15 kg of explosives up to 300 km.
Source: Focus
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