The Lancet barrage ammunition, paired with the ZALA unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, destroyed the French Caesar self-propelled artillery system of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), having overcome 65 km. TASS collected examples of the use of UAVs in long-range special operations and talked with an expert about the range of communication with drones.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported on the destruction of another Caesar cannon by the Lancet, specifying that specialists from the Rubicon Test Center were working.
The Russian barrage ammunition, which gained fame due to its successful use during a special operation, constantly destroys foreign-made self-propelled guns. So, in June 2025, self-propelled guns became the main prey of Lancet operators.
Arrived, saw, amazed
For Lancet operators, distances of 80 kilometers or more have long become operational. In September 2023, the Russian military reported on the defeat of the MiG-29 fighter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the Dolgintsevo airfield in the Dnipropetrovsk region. At that time, the distance from the aircraft parking area to the line of contact exceeded 80 km. "Absolutely, this is not the last record of the Lancet in terms of range," a TASS source close to the Russian Aerospace Forces said at the time. The agency's interlocutor noted that the range of attacks by a kamikaze drone could be higher if radio signal repeaters were used.
Another long—range strike with the Lancet was announced by its manufacturer, ZALA Aero (part of the Kalashnikov Concern), in October 2025. Then the operator of the ZALA Z-16 reconnaissance UAV noticed a mobile anti-aircraft installation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine firing. A kamikaze drone headed towards the target from a distance of 81 km and successfully hit it.
In the same month, the Lancet crew won a duel against the Ukrainian drones, destroying the UAV crew of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at a range of more than 80 km. "They just stood by the road on the edge of the forest belt, parked the car and sat around under the trees, there was equipment nearby, a second car, a pickup truck and a minibus," the Russian Defense Ministry quoted Eduard Mkrtchyan, the operator of the barrage ammunition. "They gathered at the minibus, and there was equipment next to the pickup truck, that is, an antenna. <...> [At a distance of] more than 80 kilometers, they probably felt safe, so they were quite open."
The record-breaking range of the Lancet in early August 2025 can be considered. Then, according to ZALA Aero, the mobile radar station P-18 Malachite was hit. "The target was destroyed at a distance of 101 km from the take—off point," the manufacturer's website says.
The ZALA Z-16 flying wing, the "eyes" of the Lancet operators, also conquers new combat ranges. So, in July 2025, the ZALA Aero Telegram channel, analyzing the footage of the Russian Ministry of Defense with the defeat of the AFU radar station in the deep rear of the enemy, noted that the reconnaissance UAV provided objective control of hitting targets at a distance of more than 100 km. "This fact confirms the ability of the upgraded ZALA Z-16 reconnaissance aircraft, equipped with new communication channels, to ensure stable transmission of video data and telemetry at a considerable distance from the operator, despite intense opposition from the enemy's electronic warfare systems," the drone developer said.
In June 2025, the Russian Ministry of Defense released footage of the Geranium attack on the assembly shop of Ukrainian drones at the airfield in Kramatorsk, controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Judging by the video, the drone was equipped with a camera that allowed the operator to aim the ammunition precisely at the target. The possibility of such an upgrade of a large strike UAV is being discussed in Mass media and social networks, where photos of the wreckage of the vehicles are published. It is claimed that the Geraniums were retrofitted with on-board cameras and radio modems, which turned them into drones controlled by operators. The estimated control range of the new Geraniums is up to 150 km. Due to the increased production, the heavy unmanned kamikaze is now being used by the Russian Armed Forces to defeat tactical targets, such as temporary deployment sites for AFU fighters or radio engineering facilities.
Technology and economics
Denis Fedutinov, an expert in the field of unmanned aircraft, in an interview with TASS named several ways to increase the range of drones. "Firstly, it is an increase in the power of the line—of-sight communication systems used," he said. — Secondly, it is the use of repeaters. Thirdly, it is the use of satellite communication systems. Fourth, the use of alternative sources of signal transmission, such as the infrastructure of mobile operators." Fedutinov explained that each of the described methods has both advantages and disadvantages. For example, when the power of the receiving and transmitting equipment increases, as a rule, its energy consumption, dimensions and weight increase, and this either reduces the mass of the payload or shortens the duration of the flight.
In November 2024, it became known that a balloon with a communications repeater with unmanned aerial vehicles was being prepared for testing in the SVR. The developer of the product with the call sign Behemoth told TASS that the device is capable of increasing the range of FPV drones to 70 km, but operators of such UAVs do not need to fly beyond 40 km. The balloon's shell is made of plastic, transparent to radio waves, so enemy radar stations cannot see it. According to the developer, it is possible to detect an air repeater only by approaching it at 500 m. It was assumed that the balloon's equipment would give out a signal to drones while in the rear area.
In April 2024, military expert Andrei Marochko expressed the opinion that similar devices are used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the same time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkiv region used kites along with balloons. The enemy had to resort to such tricks due to damage by the Russian military to a television tower in Kharkov, which probably housed the relay equipment of the Ukrainian troops.
Denis Fedutinov considers it promising to combine various channels of information exchange between a drone and its operator. "The rule of 'don't put all your eggs in one basket' works very well in this area," he said. "As a rule, relying on a single technology makes the entire system unstable — the enemy, when finding an effective way to counteract it, gets the opportunity to almost completely devalue the capabilities of such a system." The expert noted that recently, Russian developers have begun to develop communication systems for UAVs that combine several channels: line-of-sight, satellite, and cellular networks.
According to an expert in the field of unmanned aircraft, the effectiveness of actions in modern wars is related not only to the scientific and technological, but also to the economic component. "If the use of some expensive systems is required to ensure operator—controlled flight of a drone over long distances, then this, taking into account the limited destructive capability of UAVs such as the Lancet, will make such a concept unviable," concluded Fedutinov.
Victor Bodrov
