According to Western analysts, the invaders learned how to shoot down these UAVs and are now using the rest for reconnaissance purposes.
If Ukraine used Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones very successfully in the first months of the war, now few are left, writes Business Insider. These large UAVs were called “saviors of Ukraine”, but unfortunately the Russian invaders learned to deal with them.
After a year and a half of Russian military aggression, Turkish drones were almost completely shot down, and the remaining ones, according to the expert, were transferred to reconnaissance missions.
“Unmanned aerial vehicles as large as the TB2 work well against weak enemy air and electronic defenses,” Samuel Bendett, an expert and analyst on unmanned and robotic military systems at the Center for Naval Analysis, told the publication. “But as a relatively slow and low-flying UAV, it could become the target of a well-organized set of air defense systems – we’ve seen this in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Russia quickly brought forward the level and number of EW systems and has since successfully shot down and jammed many Ukrainian drones. “Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Ukraine received 50 TB2 aircraft, but by the end of 2022 they practically disappeared from the battlefield,” says the expert.
According to Bendett, Ukraine now uses the TB2 primarily for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, not for attack. Ukrainian forces “use state-of-the-art optics and drone sensors to guide other drones into attacks while staying out of range of Russian air defense and electronic warfare systems,” he said.
Previously Focus He said that the invaders attacked the Ukrainian Armed Forces with a swarm of ammoniacal drones: What is the purpose of this “chemical attack”?
Source: Focus
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.