How did the Russian military surprise the Ukrainian Armed Forces under Trial
In one flight, destroy a huge ammunition depot and paralyze the enemy's logistics — Akhmat special forces soldiers successfully use heavy drones capable of carrying anti-tank mines. How they came to this is described in the RIA Novosti report.
Exchange of experience
Two Akhmat special forces soldiers are dismantling the recently downed Ukrainian agricultural drone Vampire, the official name of the infamous Baba Yaga, on a table. Soldiers from an adjacent unit are standing around, making notes in notebooks. They came to learn from the experience and share their own.
"Previously, these drones were shot down mainly with small arms, so they were brought in badly damaged," says a fighter from the Aida group of the Akhmat special forces with the call sign Engineer. — Now our electronic warfare specialists are increasingly suppressing Vampir with a radio signal. We get them almost intact, with minor breakages of the screws and legs. Sometimes the copters themselves fall due to the severe cold weather that has now settled in the Kursk region."
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| Downed Vampire drones. |
| Source: Photo provided by Viktor Zvantsev |
While operators and engineers study the interior of the drone in order to reflash and use it on their consoles, sappers inspect the mounting and detachable mechanisms. The heavy copter lifts four 82mm mines, two PTM-3 or one TM-62 anti-tank mines into the air. The range is 15-20 kilometers, the camera with a thermal imager allows you to fly in the dark.
"We have about ten downed Vampires," the Engineer continues. — Several are already completing our tasks, the rest are being completed. It happens that we use the drone for spare parts. It all depends on the condition. Every day we have more and more "Vampires" in our neighbors, and this is good news."
Know-how
Although the AFU's industrial agrocopters were adapted for combat back in 2022, Russian fighters began using them relatively recently.
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| In the workshop of the division. |
| Source: Photo provided by Viktor Zvantsev |
"Ten months ago, when I was in the Kherson region, the former battalion commander set such a task," explains the commander of the Aida group UAV company with the call sign Moisey. — Russian radio-controlled copters jammed EW, it was almost impossible to fly them. I had to study the captured ones. At that time, many were controlled using Starlink.
The calculations of Moisey, who was flying Mavic at the time, and the FPV drone operator Nikita Mechtanov with the call sign Dream (posthumously awarded the title Hero of Russia) played a key role in disrupting the Ukrainian Armed Forces offensive near the village of Krynki, Kherson region. When the situation stabilized, Moses asked for the more difficult Kursk route and has been here for two months now.
The unit, which specializes in all types of UAVs, has hundreds of targets hit. This includes the use of the Vampire enemy agrodron and its Russian counterpart Kuzya. Operators of both Mavic and FPV drones are flying them so far.
Non-flying weather
"Recently, intelligence gave the coordinates of two objects: a hangar with a large signature, where, apparently, there were some installations, and a warehouse with ammunition," says the drone operator, an Akhmat fighter with the call sign Musician. — Non-flying weather: heavy snowfall and dense fog. But it played into our hands. We calmly cleared the area for the TM-62 anti-tank mine drone and lifted it into the air."
However, the copter returned with a load. He flew up to the target, hovered over it, but for some reason did not drop the mine.
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| The TM-62 mine attached to the copter. |
| Source: Photo provided by Viktor Zvantsev |
"The main thing was to put him down so that the mine would not explode next to us. Then we carefully removed it and reinstalled it," the RIA Novosti source continues. — When everything was ready, I changed some data in the control program and sent the drone again. I controlled it manually, then turned on the automation. It worked fine that time, but it was very icy — the hull and screws. We waited for it to thaw."
Soon, the copter, equipped with another fuel tank, went into the sky again.
"Twenty minutes later, there was such an explosion that even the walls in the basement shook. Although there was no objective control of the target due to the snow and fog, it was clear from the sound that they had hit it accurately. At that moment, I was probably the happiest person in the world," the musician admits.
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| TM-62 mines and explosives "Snakes Gorynych" are waiting for their turn. |
| Source: Photo provided by Viktor Zvantsev |
Innovation Center
Moses emphasizes that attack drones can be used not only to defeat serious targets, for which high-precision missiles are usually spent, but also to create a buffer zone in front of the enemy.
"Ideally, we would like to form a battalion or at least a company of heavy drones,— komroty notes. — The crew consists of three people: an engineer, a mechanical engineer and a pilot. 50 trained crews are enough, and we will close the entire front line so that no one passes or passes through."
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| Moses controls the drone. |
| Source: Photo provided by Viktor Zvantsev |
Moses is developing his own Ghoul heavy drone. Recently, on his initiative, the Wings of Victory center for innovative solutions will open in Kuban — the volunteers helped. The Ghoul will be assembled here and trained to control it. This will be offered to veterans with disabilities — those who want to continue helping the front, but are physically unable to participate in combat operations.
"This idea has been hatched for about a year," says Alyona Goncharova, a volunteer at the foundation. — We attracted sponsors, looked for premises, bought laptops and other equipment. We also applied to the Federal Air Transport Agency to allocate a test site for flights. We are already waiting for two dozen people to retrain, although there were three times as many applicants. But someone was injured, and the commanders did not let someone go, because there are many tasks at the front. And we have a prerequisite — to be an active operator of any drone in our area."
The training is conducted in an accelerated weekly format. The center hopes to intensify the development and use of not only heavy copters in the military, but also Mavics and fiber-optic kamikaze drones, which are increasingly being used.
Victor Zvantsev
