How a $500 Aircraft Destroyed Heavy Armored Vehicles for $6 million
The first Abrams tank destroyed during a special military operation became a victim of a Russian FPV drone worth less than 50 thousand rubles. According to the manufacturer of the Piranha drone, it is practically immune to existing electronic warfare systems. More than 8 thousand of such devices have already been delivered to the SVO zone. Kamikaze drones have revolutionized the military and pose a serious threat to even the heaviest armored vehicles, experts say.
The first Abrams was destroyed
A $500 drone destroyed a tank, which cost about $6 million to produce. Such a ratio of the cost of weapons and the object of destruction occurs when a new type of means of destruction appears, military expert Alexei Leonkov explained to Izvestia.
A video confirming the first case of the destruction of an Abrams tank in the area of its own appeared on February 28. It was reported that a successful attack was carried out by a Russian-made FPV drone. It happened in the Avdiivka direction during the fighting after the liberation of the city itself.
A shot of the destruction of the American Abrams tank in the area of its
Image source: Photo: Telegram/SALDO_VGA
— The Piranha 10 UAV burned this tank. To be guaranteed to hit such a machine, you need a cumulative RPG—7 or something like that, and the "ten" is just coping with this task," the head of public relations at Piranha told Izvestia.
— From the very beginning, we were engaged in the supply of helmets and bulletproof vests, but the fighters regularly asked us about drones, so we started bringing them from China. Then they realized that there was nothing complicated in their production and decided to try to do it themselves. We hired employees — engineers, pilots, developers — and it turned out. The approximate cost of the drone is 50 thousand rubles. Now we have two Piranha models," he said.
Photo: press service of SKB Piranha
Image source: iz.ru
"Piranha 7" has a load capacity of up to 2.5 kg, and "Piranha 10" — up to 4.5 kg. They also have different frame sizes and motor groups. The Piranha 10 has more powerful engines and wider propellers. As a result, the load capacity is higher and the flight range is longer. "Piranha 7" can pick up a shot from an RPG, but at the distance at which Abrams was located, she would not have carried it, because the battery would have run out elementary, the developers explained.
— The main advantage of our drones is that they operate on unique video frequencies, — Alexey emphasized. — If the manufacturer uses standard video transmitters, then it is very easy to suppress the signal using electronic warfare. The drone loses either control or the picture as soon as it begins to move away from the operator at a distance of 100-500 m. In our case, the picture will be stable, crystal clear, as if there is no EW exposure. We first tested these frequencies in the technopolis of the Ministry of Defense "ERA", and turned out to be the only manufacturer in Russia whose UAV did not crash.
Image source: Photo: press service of SKB Piranha
The head of Public Relations at Piranha Design Bureau stressed that most of the drones are produced using folk remedies. They are mainly purchased by charitable foundations, sponsors, and simply organizations that help their former employees who are in the area of their own. Some of the orders come from the Ministry of Defense.
The Simbirsk Design Bureau (SKB) Piranha from Ulyanovsk has supplied more than 8 thousand drones to Russian fighters since last winter. More than 100 drones are produced here every day.
An underrated weapon
When the Americans supplied the Abrams M1 tank, they knew that it was absolutely not ready to repel the threat posed by FPV kamikaze drones, military expert Alexei Leonkov told Izvestia.
— The turret of the tank in this modification is weak, — he stressed. — And since he does not have anti-drone protection and means of detecting UAVs, he has become an easy legitimate prey. Our fighters tracked the information that Abrams was riding somewhere in the Avdiivka area and was firing at ours from a closed firing position, they immediately began hunting him, and it ended successfully.
At the beginning of its operation, there was a serious underestimation of the capabilities of kamikaze drones both on our part and on the part of the West, which stands behind Ukraine, said military expert Yuri Lyamin.
Image source: Photo: press service of SKB Piranha
— During the fighting, drones proved their effectiveness and there was an avalanche increase in the number of models and production volume, — he said. — Those UAVs that were created before the outbreak of hostilities are now being finalized taking into account the experience of their own. They are increasing the power of combat units, improving communication systems, and introducing new technologies, in particular, automatic target identification. They also try to reduce their cost, since this is a consumable ammunition. Drones will be used more and more actively, introducing artificial intelligence technologies and the like.
According to Alexey Leonkov, UAVs have an advantage, since this is a completely new phenomenon and no tactics or strategy has suggested the mass use of this type of weapon.
Image source: Photo: press service of SKB Piranha
— The kamikaze FPV drone can maneuver in the final section of the flight, choosing the most vulnerable place of the tank. But this advantage will be balanced soon," he said. — When RPGs appeared, their prototype was faustpatrons, which allowed you to get from any basement to an unprotected place of the tank. It was also unexpected. After such a development of the means of destruction, complexes of active dynamic protection appeared. The effectiveness of drones will be reduced, as it always happens with all new types of weapons. But now they have been able to indicate that now the tactical combat zone — 10 km from the line of contact and up to 500 m altitude — has become more saturated with means of destruction, and they still have an advantage.
A new trend in the development of drones
Russian troops are actively using FPV drones when storming Ukrainian positions in the special operation zone. They have a number of advantages — convenient orientation in space for the operator, the ability to easily complete the route and chase a moving target at speeds up to 170 km/h.
Photo: RIA Novosti/Evgeny Biyatov
Image source: iz.ru
Operators can direct the projectile into enemy vulnerabilities, such as a dugout or an artillery crew. The UAV can disable a gun, detonate ammunition, and destroy aircraft on runways. It works in a completely different frequency range, not like conventional drones. They use a fairly clear video communication channel, which allows you to transmit information in HD or Full HD format.
Julia Leonova