New Russian tactic of using "Shaheds" increases the number of hits in Ukraine - FT
Kyiv • UNN
Russia's "swarm" drone tactic breaches Ukraine's defenses, tripling the number of Shahed hits. From April to June, 15% of drones penetrated defenses, compared to 5% in the previous three months.
Russian "swarm" drone tactics are increasingly breaking through Ukraine's defenses. Drones are hitting targets three times more often than usual in recent months, the Financial Times reports, citing its own sources, writes UNN.
Details
Massive attacks by Shaheds, Iranian-designed drones now produced in Russia, appear to be overwhelming Ukraine's air defenses, with drone hit rates reaching their highest level since the Russian invasion.
Ukrainian Air Force data shows that about 15 percent of drones penetrated defenses on average from April to June — compared to only 5 percent in the previous three months.
The sheer volume of Russian attacks has also sharply increased this year, with a powerful attack involving 426 Shahed-type attack drones taking place from Sunday evening to Monday morning, the Ukrainian Air Force reported.
The success of drones in recent months demonstrates how cheap mass can pose a serious challenge even to sophisticated and layered air defense systems, and has also shown Moscow's ability to quickly adapt combat methods to stretch Kyiv's resources.
Russia's tactical innovations, aimed at significantly increasing the effectiveness of slow Shaheds, included modifications that allow them to fly faster and beyond the reach of truck-mounted machine guns that Ukraine typically uses to shoot them down.
The problem is not that Ukrainian air defense is deteriorating. Instead, we are seeing that new swarming tactics and drones are now flying at higher altitudes, which makes them more effective.
Russia has named its domestically produced and adapted Shaheds "Geran" in accordance with the Soviet practice of naming weapons after flowers. According to analysts, the "Geran-3," a turbojet variant that can reach speeds of up to 800 km/h in a dive, has been used against Kyiv in recent weeks.
The increase in domestic production of Shahed-type drones has allowed Russia to overwhelm air defenses with drone "swarms" — a record attack occurred on July 9, when Russian forces launched 728 drones, as well as seven Iskander cruise missiles and six Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles.
The increase in launch sizes saturates defense systems, which increases the hit percentage
Ukrainian defenses against Shahed drones currently include the use of electronic warfare to suppress their GPS guidance systems, machine guns, and anti-aircraft guns, including the advanced Oerlikon Skynex gun, an advanced air defense gun manufactured by the German company Rheinmetall.
On Sunday evening and Monday morning, about 5.4% of more than 400 Russian drones hit targets — a better-than-average rate than in recent months.
The constant night attacks are apparently aimed at undermining Ukraine's will to fight and forcing Kyiv to make concessions to end the war.
Russian cruise and ballistic missiles are mixed with Shahed drones to further confuse air defenses. While the hit rate of more advanced missiles remains unchanged, this comes amid uncertainty about US supplies of Patriot missile interceptors.
Capacity is one of the most pressing issues for the missile defense world right now. There's a queue around the block and around the corner to get more [Patriot] interceptors. Many of them will be waiting for some time
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Ukrainian interceptor drones
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on July 10 that Ukraine "is already shooting down dozens of Shaheds with its domestic interceptor drones during each Russian attack. Earlier this month, he announced an agreement with Eric Schmidt, CEO of the American company Swift Beat, to jointly produce hundreds of thousands of drones for Ukraine, including interceptor drones.
Last week, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine's air defense forces "are achieving good results" with the new interceptor drones, and that they "are performing particularly well, having shot down hundreds of Russian-Iranian Shaheds in a week."
"Every meeting with partners this week was dedicated to scaling this technology," he added.
Oleksandr Matviienko, a drone expert at Counteroffensive Pro, a Ukrainian defense technology newsletter, said that for effectiveness, new anti-drone drones must reach an altitude of 6 km and a speed of 200 km/h to intercept Shaheds.
These interceptor drones will be better prepared to defend against attacks that might otherwise overwhelm Ukrainian mobile fire teams.
"Instead of deploying 500 drones across the country, as they did before, Russian forces are now attacking one or two cities at a time," Matviienko said.
Andrew Turner, CEO of Saibre Capital and former Air Marshal of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain, said that the evolution of drones and missile defense in Ukraine is typical of the constant competition between new innovations in air warfare.
"It's a constant duel and evolution between countermeasures against countermeasures against countermeasures. In Ukraine, this movement happens every 14 days, so it moves at great speed," he said.
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