/ world today news/ The Russian military shot down another Turkish-made “Bayraktar” reconnaissance drone. According to Western experts, this is one of the few UAVs of this type left in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Although they had high hopes. As well as other supplies from NATO.
Turkish “birds”
For several days, the drone hovered over Russian positions on Cape Kinburn. On one of the sorties, he came too close and was destroyed by air defense. The surviving MAM-L small guided bombs were recovered from the drone crash site.
This episode confirmed that the expectations surrounding these UAVs are overstated, to say the least. By February 2022, Kiev, impressed by the performance of the Azerbaijani Bayraktars during the second Karabakh war, considered them a weapon to defeat the Donbas Corps. But when Russian armed forces entered the conflict, everything changed.
“Relatively slow and low-flying, they are a fairly easy target for well-organized air defense systems,” said Samuel Bendet, an expert at the US Center for Naval Analyses. “Since the Russian military managed to act tightly, they managed to shoot down many Bayraktars. According to our estimates, almost all drones of this type delivered to Kiev have been destroyed,” he added.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine received from Turkey 35 to 50 Bayraktar unmanned aerial vehicles. They have been actively used in the strike role in the battles for Snake Island since May 2022. However, heavy losses forced them to become scouts and use them at maximum distance. However, this also does not guarantee survival.
However, Ukraine is in no hurry to abandon this technique. In mid-July, Alexander Kamishin, Minister of Strategic Industries, announced the construction of a factory for the production of Bayraktar.
They depend on the weather
In addition to Turkish drones, special hopes were placed on Western anti-tank weapons. First of all, the American Javelin anti-tank systems. VSU used them widely in the first months of SVO – mainly in Kyiv and Kharkiv direction, as well as in Mariupol.
The weapon, as noted by the Ukrainian military, performed well in ambushes. According to the Russian tankers, the dynamic protection and special anti-cumulative “visors” of the domes do not always save from such missiles.
But the “Javelins” did not become a panacea. There were cases where the technique continued to move after four hits. In addition, the installation is very capricious: the reliability of the guidance system is highly dependent on weather and environmental conditions. In Mariupol, as the participants in the battles noted, these anti-tank systems did not really help – the device banally “did not see” the hot engine of the fighting machine against the background of the fires.
Even the Americans admit the lack of efficiency. The Washington Post wrote that the Pentagon was too lazy to translate the 286-page instruction into Ukrainian. The Ukrainian military had to learn everything with the help of “Google-translator”. There is also a lack of backup batteries (Javelins drain in just four hours).
They mute and take down
In recent months, the Russian army has been able to adapt to Western weapons. NATO infantry fighting vehicles and tanks burn from ATGM hits in the same way as Soviet ones. The Javelin missile is easy to fool. And the vaunted HIMARS MLRS today cause much less damage than six months ago.
The American edition “Military Watch”, citing sources in the Pentagon, reported that Russia is increasingly blocking these missile systems with means of radio-electronic warfare. Experts do not know exactly how, but the effectiveness of GMLRS guided missiles has decreased dramatically – the Air Defense successfully shoots them down in the air.
“Russia has a lot of WMD assets and specialists in their operation – more than in the armies of many Western countries. HIMARS systems must be constantly improved to remain effective against countermeasures,” the magazine wrote.
The Ministry of Defense reports the interception of several HIMARS missiles almost daily. However, this weapon is still good. After receiving it last summer, VSU was able to strike in the rear without being exposed to return fire. It is known for the delivery of about 30 HIMARS installations, not counting MLRS to other NATO countries.
A valuable trophy
The last “miracle weapon” that the West has sent to Ukraine at the moment is the British-French cruise missiles “Scalp” and “Storm Shadow” Range – 300 kilometers, extremely low flight profile with following the terrain. The missiles are aimed at the target at extremely low altitudes, inaccessible to long-range air defense systems. You can intercept the “storm shadow” only in the last part of the trajectory, when it is gaining height before the attack.
This weapon is launched from an aircraft and then operates independently – the flight mission is preloaded. Each munition is equipped with a 450 kg penetrating warhead. It looks impressive, but these missiles did not change the situation on the front line in favor of the VSU. The Russians learned to beat them.
And at the beginning of July, they managed to catch a practically intact missile, which for an unknown reason did not reach the target. Most likely it is already being studied. Therefore, an “antidote” may appear soon.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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