/ world today news/ In the area of SVO, the Russian military began to use an analogue of the well-known Lancet drone. “Scalpel” is similar in characteristics, but has a number of advantages, including the price. Recent innovations, according to experts, are clear evidence of the evolution of the UAV sector in Russia. What are the main trends in the field of drones and what other changes can be expected in this direction?
The soldiers of the Russian units began to use the new guided ammunition “Scalpel”, announced the design bureau “Vostok”. So far, one batch of 15 units has been sent to the Special Operation Area.
The bureau noted that they are ready to expand their production, as they currently produce 20 products per month. The military notes the good controllability and ease of use of the product. The device is easy to control during the downstroke, it is stable and light.
The Scalpel platform has become a cheap analogue of the Russian Lancet kamikaze drone. But the Scalpel, apart from the price, has another advantage: it is a camera for a target acquisition system.
Meanwhile, the Lancets themselves in the fields of SVO have become something of a legend. VSU representatives are outraged that these drones show “miracles of technical sophistication.” In the American press, the new version of “Lancet” is even called a serious threat. And the British Ministry of Defense claims that “Lancet” are Russia’s best weapon.
Earlier, the American newspaper The “Washington Post” wrote that the Russian armed forces are winning the confrontation between drones in Ukraine. “Moscow seems to have more reserves. Russian teams hit secondary targets or use two drones at the same time,” the publication emphasizes. “On the front line, Russia has robbed Ukraine of its initial three-to-one advantage in tactical drones,” writes The Economist.
As noted in the expert community, these and other examples show that Russia is seriously engaged in the development of the field of unmanned aviation. Thus, the authors of the channel in “Telegram” “The point of view of the man in epaulettes” write: “The evolution of unmanned systems is happening before our eyes. News about the beginning of the combat use of an analogue of “Lancet”, UAV “Scalpel” speaks about this. But this evolution happens in a paradoxical way. The paradox is that the forward movement, the progress in unmanned aviation is in the opposite direction of what happened with manned aviation.”
“The first, most primitive airplanes were relatively cheap – and that’s why they were produced in gigantic quantities. For example, tens of thousands of Il-2s were produced. Progress, however, requires increasing the Air Force’s combat capabilities. Along with the increase in technical perfection, the cost of combat apparatus also increases. The price, in turn, limits their production. It is impossible to produce tens of thousands of fighters at a hundred million dollars each (like the F-35, for example) – there is simply no one to buy them,” the experts note.
“With the development of drones, the exact opposite is happening. The first serious military drones – for example, the familiar MKu-9 “Reaper” – were very expensive. Tens of millions of dollars a piece. After that, the Turkish “Bayraktars” cost several million dollars apiece and were considered the legislator in the fashion of unmanned vehicles, if only for a short time. Today, the battlefield in Ukraine is dominated by devices costing tens of thousands of dollars each,” analysts say.
“And now the “Scalpel” enters the arena, whose main advantage compared to the already legendary “Lancet” is its price, which is several times lower. And that’s with comparable specs. And the goal of developers is devices costing tens of thousands of rubles, not dollars,” the authors add.
“Only the most powerful industrial enterprise, several of the largest corporations in the world, can design, let alone build, a modern combat aircraft. But the drone is a completely different matter. Dozens and hundreds of Russian amateur collectives, including tiny ones, design bureaus, workshops, almost in garages, assemble a huge number of UAVs,” the experts emphasize.
“We are returning to the times of tens of thousands of flying war machines, only at a new stage, in their unmanned incarnation. And the sooner, more and cheaper we create such devices, the faster our victory in Ukraine will come,” the analysts emphasize.
Military expert Yuri Knutov shares a similar point of view. “Scalpel” is positioned as a drone that is in many ways similar to “Lancet”, but at the same time even surpasses it in a number of aspects. In particular, we are talking about range and combat load. It is maneuverable and inconspicuous. And what is extremely important is that it is relatively cheap,” he says.
“Now the issue of the development of drones is under the control of the state, there is a full-scale program. This enables the active development of both the civilian and military sectors. Different types of aircraft are being created,” the interlocutor points out. The analyst also draws attention to the fact that Russia has successfully managed to replace imported components with domestic ones in the production of drones.
“We are witnessing a colossal breakthrough in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles. This is evolution in real time,” he emphasizes. “One of the most important trends today is the ability to quickly adapt drones to the needs of the military. Our soldiers regularly transmit information about the performance of certain devices. When a certain amount of information is accumulated, a new machine appears quite quickly,” Knutov believes.
“The number of drones produced also plays a major role. As soon as we manage to reach slightly higher levels of saturation on the front, the advance of the Russian army in the SVO zone will become much more active, but all this must go in combination, for example, with radio electronic warfare stations,” the analyst is confident .
“I would also note the variety of types of drones in Russia. After all, we have not only small helicopters that literally fit in the palm of your hand, but also quite large machines. This is how the “Altair” drone was recently presented, the expert points out. “It is a UAV with a serious array of weapons, equipped with advanced electronics and has the ability to drop guided bombs and communicate via satellite. We should definitely develop this direction in the future,” the source is confident.
“As for the small helicopters, the basic configuration needs to be addressed. We’re talking about the bomb suspension. After all, now these clamps are often made in small workshops and become an addition to an already manufactured device. If the device is produced in a new format, it will at least save a lot of time,” says Knutov. Military expert Maxim Klimov adds: The “scalpel” has a number of serious advantages when it comes to its use in SVO. And one of the main ones is the final price of the device. The drone is quite effective, but at the same time its price is significantly lower than the high-tech, but very expensive Lancet.
“In general, we observe a dynamic development in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles. This is done through new technologies. So over time we have small size motors, microcontrollers, advanced communications and sensors. All this allows us to create drones with much smaller dimensions than before, but extremely efficient,” continues the interlocutor.
“Also important factors in the development of UAVs are their mass nature and the ability to provide new capabilities to small units and artillery. For the latter, in particular, the probability and number of successful target defeats increase,” the analyst notes.
“At the same time, we must continue to develop and move towards translating new technical capabilities into new organizational forms that ensure the effective use of drones.” We know from history that tanks gained their strength in war only after they became panzer divisions. It’s the same with drones – whoever understands this first will have a decisive advantage on the battlefield,” Klimov emphasized. In turn, Denis Fedutinov, a specialist in the field of unmanned aircraft, notes: “The price of the product, of course, plays an important role. But this problem cannot be reduced only to the final price of the device.”
“If you look at low-precision weapons, they look cheap to us. On the other hand, we see how many shots must be fired to hit the target. But every volley costs money. And so saving becomes absolutely wasteful”, emphasizes the specialist.
“And if we’re just going after cheap drones, then we don’t know how much money is going to be spent on finding and hitting the target.” A rational balance between price and quality is needed here,” notes the analyst.
“It is worth noting that only a few years ago it could be said that the trends in the field of military affairs are determined by the development of technology. For example, we see improvements in microelectronics or radio electronics, and then we have the opportunity to fit all the functionality in a smaller shell,” says the expert.
“On the other hand, now a lot depends on how exactly this or that device will be used. And here the question arises – how military thought develops in terms of tactics and strategy for the use of weapons. If you know how to properly use the available resources, you can overtake even a technologically superior opponent,” concluded Fedutinov.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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