Unmanned Aerial Vehicle The latest drone news
Footage of a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) winning a “jousting match” with a Russian drone has circulated online.
A Ukrainian “quadcopter,” or a drone with four rotors, is purportedly engaged in a fight with a Russian Autel EVO II drone, “downing it,” according to an open-source military technology account on Twitter, which posted the clip. Newsweek has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Drone warfare has been prominent throughout the war in Ukraine for both Kyiv’s and Moscow’s militaries. Combat drones “are the new super-weapon here,” Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, previously told Newsweek. Ukraine’s government has also committed to building up an “army of drones” for aerial reconnaissance.
“This war is a war of drones,” Gerashchenko added.
Getty Images/Sean Gallup
“Suicide” or “kamikaze” drones have been widely used by Russian forces across Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s Air Command said that Russian forces had attacked Ukrainian territory from the south overnight.
A total of 17 strikes using Iranian-made Shahed-131 and 136 drones were recorded, Ukraine’s military said. Of these, Ukraine shot down 14 UAVs, the Air Command said in a post on Facebook.
The Iranian-made Shahed drones are kitted out with warheads that explode or shatter as it approaches the target. Iran had said it did not supply Moscow with these loitering munitions. Tehran later said it had sent a “small number of drones months before the Ukraine war.”
Lt. Gen. Serhiy Nayev, of the Command of the United Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in a statement posted to Facebook earlier in April that Kyiv’s fighters were often using large-caliber machine guns to shoot down the drones before they hit their intended targets. The UAVs “dodge” Ukrainian defenses, he added.
The British defense ministry said in late March that Russia had launched at least 71 Shahed strikes in Ukrainian territory since the start of that month. The Kremlin’s forces had likely received “regular resupplies” after the drones, and Shahed UAV operations had paused for a fortnight in late February, the ministry said.
The relatively inexpensive drones are known for the low buzzing sound they make as they near their target. They are generally slow-moving and fly low, with the smaller Shahed-131 having a maximum range of around 550 miles. The larger Shahed-136 is thought to have an extended range of approximately 1,200 miles.
They are often not difficult to shoot down if Ukraine’s air defense can detect them in time, experts previously told Newsweek.
Newsweek has contacted Russia’s defense ministry and Ukraine’s defense ministry for comment via email.
