TSAMTO, May 25. Since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, Russian air defense systems have shot down about 90 Bayraktar attack UAVs in the air, RIA Novosti reports, citing an informed source.
"Since February 24, about 90 Bayraktar attack UAVs of Turkish production have been destroyed by air defense means of the Russian Armed Forces. This is not counting the drones destroyed in hangars on the ground by high–precision cruise missiles," the agency interlocutor said.
The source added that "Bayraktar UAVs are an easy target for such Russian anti-aircraft missile systems as Tor-M2, Pantsir-S and Buk-M3 because of their relatively large size, low speed and extremely low maneuverability."
He noted that Turkish drones have a single-channel sighting and navigation system and can attack only one target at a time. This also dramatically reduces their survivability, since "on repeated visits they get off with a 100% probability," the agency interlocutor said.
As RIA Novosti notes with reference to open sources, 50 such devices were delivered to Ukraine before the start of the special operation (according to TSAMTO – 36 units). At the beginning of March, the Ukrainian side reported receiving new batches of "Bayraktars".