A month ago the United States approved a new military aid package for Ukraine that included additional interceptors for NASAMS air defense systems. patriots and new anti-drone capabilities such as 30mm cannon. Another of the items transferred by the US is a specially designed mobile laser-guided rocket system against drones that allows Kiev to launch precision projectiles from mobile positions. All this is serving the Ukrainian army to stop drone attacks launched from Russia.
This has been revealed by the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the last few hours by announcing that its systems have shot down 21 of the 26 kamikaze drones made in Iran sent by Moscow on Tuesday from the Bryansk region of Russia to the northeast of Ukraine, and from the Sea of Azov, to the southeast, reports Efe.
Part of these Shahed 136 drones Iranian-made They were headed for the capital, kyiv, where the anti-aircraft sirens were activated around midnight and the Ukrainian army managed to shoot down all the unmanned aircraft that entered its airspace.
“The adversary’s tactics continue as usual and unchanged: at nightfall the terrorists launch a wave of devices from various directions,” the head of the Kiev Military Administration, Sergii Popko, said on his Telegram account.
With the help of the air defense systems received from its Western alliesUkraine now manages to shoot down most of the kamikaze drones with which Russia destroyed numerous Ukrainian energy infrastructures in autumn and winter.
According to some analysts, Russia keeps launching these low-cost drones to force Ukraine to spend much more expensive missiles and other types of anti-aircraft munitions. The interceptions of these drones could also help Russia locate the location of defensive systems used by Ukraine.
Russian guided bombs
Although the drones sent by Moscow are less and less effective, the same cannot be said of their missiles. Russia has increased attacks with air-to-ground guided bombs and they are becoming an increasing challenge, according to senior officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. These types of devices are cheaper and easier to produce than motorized missiles and allow Russia to launch attacks beyond its borders without the risk of losing the plane from which they were fired.
These bombs weigh between 500 and 1,500 kilograms and “have a very great destructive force,” said Svitlana Mandrych. “Today, almost 80% of the houses and the private sector have been destroyed or damaged in the city” of Zaporizhia.
He Ukrainian Colonel Yuri Ignat He said last week that “every day, some 20 guided air bombs fall on frontline war areas.” “Those bombs can fly about 70 kilometers and can target critical infrastructure facilities, kindergartens, residential areas, and educational and medical institutions and we cannot counter this type of munitions. Our air defense is ineffective against the bombs themselves, but we should try to shoot down the Su-34 fighters who carry this ammunition”.
Although there are no details of the type of guided bombs used by Russia, TheWarZones media speculates that it is the Grom air-to-surface missile or of FAB-500M-62, a Soviet-designed air-dropped bomb with a high-explosive warhead. Some media detected in the past that bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces were already using guided bombs. UPAB-1500V of 1,500 kg.
To deal with Russian planes, Ukraine is already using US-sent Patriot defense systems, which allow it to target enemy planes from a distance of 150 kilometers, a system far more advanced than Ukraine’s Russian-made S-300s. .
