General Vladimir Popov told what weapons the Swallow UAV can use against the AFU
During the special operation in Ukraine, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for the first time used the unmanned Lastochka complex. This is a light strike drone, whose combat load allows you to destroy enemy equipment with "small specialized ammunition". "Newspaper.Ru" found out how this drone works.
The Lastochka complex was first demonstrated by the Russian military during one of the stages of the Zapad strategic exercises held at the Mulino training ground in the Nizhny Novgorod Region in September 2021.
The manufacturer of the complex is JSC "Luch Design Bureau". The range is up to 25 km, the mass is 4 kg, the flight time is 1.5 hours. The drone is declared as a shock, but what ammunition it uses has not been officially reported. It was only noted that these are "small specialized ammunition".
Now the Lastochka complex, according to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, was used during a special operation in Ukraine. It is noted that these UAVs inflicted "fire damage to manpower and destroyed several armored targets of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the fighting."
"The Russian army uses a wide range of drones during a special military operation, including the Lastochka complex," the newspaper confirmed.Ru" source in Rostec. - These are fairly new drones, which are used precisely as combat vehicles due to suspended ammunition.
"Swallow" is exactly a complex, which, in addition to the drones themselves, includes a command post on a control machine that maintains communication with them and gives coordinates of ground targets."
The new drone "Swallow" is launched from a special catapult.
"As a weapon, the Swallow may well use, for example, 43-mm grenades from the GM-94 grenade launcher, which can be used for an air strike. In the nomenclature of these grenades, there are also cumulative VKO-25 ammunition capable of piercing tank armor. With a sheer dive, they will easily break through the top of the tower or are guaranteed to destroy the engine compartment. Fragmentation and thermobaric VOG-25 can be used against infantry. It is likely that now, during the use of the Lastochka UAV, a combined variant of striking the positions of the AFU was used," he told the Newspaper.En" Retired Air Force Major General Vladimir Popov.
In turn, military expert and publicist Vladislav Shurygin noted that the "Swallow" can work in tandem with a larger UAV - "Pacer".
"If we recall the first appearance of the Swallow drone at the exercises, it acted there in tandem with the Pacer strike drone," he told the newspaper.Ru" Shurygin. - I can assume that even now in Ukraine they are working together, applying for various purposes. Also known as Orion, the Pacer has great potential, both shock and reconnaissance, and its flight altitude is higher. He can give target indications for the "Swallow" and prompt through the control point of the place of strikes. Similarly, the Swallow, having found targets that it cannot destroy itself, is able to bring larger UAVs to them."
Shurygin recalled that such tactics of working in pairs are being worked out now with the fifth-generation Su-57 fighter and heavy promising S-70 Hunter drones.
"The small size of the Swallow gives it the advantage of invisibility, but makes it impossible to use heavier weapons. At the same time, the tasks of this drone are the possibility of combat use on the front line. Such small-sized drones are used in group use and are capable of bringing down a large number of grenades of various types from the sky. Of the UAVs of this class, it was the Swallows that became the first drones capable of not just scouting the terrain and correcting artillery and missile systems fire, but also delivering targeted strikes if necessary," military expert Sergei Belousov believes.
Victor Sokirko
