In Ukraine, they called the Lancet their main threat. Why is the effectiveness of the Russian drone recognized all over the world?

The Russian Lancet unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is one of the main threats to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). The Telegraph writes about this with reference to the Ukrainian military with the call sign Manul.

"There are a lot of them, and they cause a lot of trouble to our troops, because we don't have such weapons," Manul said.

The British edition cites the comment of the adviser to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Yuriy Saki, according to which Russia has increased the production of "Lancets", which pose a danger to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Telegraph notes that the Russian UAV is effective against armored vehicles, and most of all it causes inconvenience to Ukrainian gunners.

The UAV has several modifications

The Lancet barrage ammunition was developed and manufactured by the Russian company ZALA, part of the Kalashnikov Concern. The UAV presented at the Army-2019 exhibition is designed to solve shock and reconnaissance tasks. The maximum range of the Lancet is 50 kilometers, the maximum payload is 12 kilograms, and the maximum flight time is 40 minutes.

Armament — high-explosive fragmentation and cumulative warheads. It has optoelectronic guidance. On the final part of the flight, the use of television guidance is allowed.

One of the advantages of the Russian UAV is the ability to operate without the use of a satellite navigation system, which ensures resistance to enemy electronic warfare systems.

The body of the barrage ammunition is made of composite materials, which makes it unobtrusive to enemy air defense systems

The relatively small cost of the drone (several tens of thousands of dollars) makes it a profitable means of destroying expensive Western-made equipment available to the APU.

Russian drones are being improved

Earlier, the Rossiya-1 TV channel talked about using a container to launch several Lancet drones with folding wings and tail feathers at once. The new launch scheme will allow Russian unmanned aerial vehicles to become destroyers of Ukrainian air defense systems.

According to Peter Suchiu, a columnist for the American edition of 19FortyFive, today the Lancet is already a mass destroyer of APU equipment.

Russian drones cause great damage to Ukrainian air defense

In July, TASS, citing a representative of the emergency services of the Kherson region, reported that the Russian military hit the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of eight settlements on the right bank of the Dnieper. In particular, a Ukrainian command and staff vehicle was destroyed by a Lancet strike.

Commenting on this message, the American edition of The Drive admitted that The Lancet had dealt a "significant blow" to the Ukrainian Skyguard air defense system using Aspide missiles. The publication describes the joint work of the shock version of this UAV and a reconnaissance drone.

The publication writes that a reconnaissance drone worked in conjunction with the Lancet. In the frames shown by the Russian side, two air defense system vehicles are visible, close to each other — a launcher and a transport loader, as well as a person next to him.

After that, the newspaper notes, the footage taken from the Lancet rushing to the control point is visible, which ends immediately before the moment of impact. "A video taken from another drone filming the scene from above confirms that the kamikaze drone hit right on target," writes The Drive.

In June, The Drive admitted that the radar of the Ukrainian air defense system Infra Red Imaging System Tail (IRIS-T) of German production was destroyed by a Russian drone, presumably a Lancet. The publication noted that the TRML-4D radar was introduced in 2018, that is, it was the newest.

In Russia, the production of "Lancets" is increasing

During the last meeting with the head of Rostec Sergey Chemezov, Russian President Vladimir Putin ru/news/2023/08/07/ nado/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">called for increasing the production of the latest weapons, in particular, Lancet drones.

In this context, the head of state, in addition to the drone, mentioned the T-90 "Breakthrough" tank and aircraft complexes.