“The Russian military drone capability continues to evolve as part of the reconnaissance-strike and reconnaissance fire contours,” says Bendett. Since then Russia has improved co-ordination between its drones and artillery forces, building up combat experience in Syria. “In a three minute period… a Russian fire strike wiped out two mechanized battalions with a combination of top-attack munitions and thermobaric warheads,” Potomac Foundation president Phillip Karber told the AUSA conference in 2015. put down devastatingly accurate barragesat from forty miles away TASS via Getty Images Russian drones act as spotters so these 9A52 Smerch (Tornado) heavy multiple rocket launchers can. Sighting a drone often indicated the imminent arrival of massive rocket barrage, sometimes with devastating effect. In the last conflict Russia used drones to rapidly find, locate and direct artillery fire onto Ukrainian positions. Certainly they have a vastly better organized, equipped and trained air defense system that the Armenians.īut perhaps the greatest impact will not be from Ukrainian drones, but Russian ones. The Russians then believe they can blunt the edge of any Ukrainian drone onslaught. “The Russian MOD is conducting this type of counter-drone training on a regular basis to make sure its soldiers know how to tackle such a threat.” “The Russian military intends to use a combination of EW and air defense systems to neutralize them,” says Bendett. Observers have also recently noticed Russian tanks near the border with ‘ field expedient’ armor add-ons, welded metal cages over the turrets to deflect or prematurely detonate missiles from above.īendett notes that the Russians now have some years’ experience against the smaller drones that have been deployed in and around Donbas.

The Pantsir S-1 mobile anti-aircraft system has performed poorly against drones in the past - but.

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