The Armed Forces of Ukraine will adopt medium fixed-wing interceptor drones by the end of this year. This is reported by the publication PICTURE, citing open data analytics expert Julian Röpke.
In the midst of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Russia has air superiority thanks to its aircraft, drones and missiles. However, due to the prohibition of Western allies on strikes on Russian air bases, Ukraine is forced to focus on its own development of interceptor drones. As Julian Röpke notes, there are three main types of such drones:
Small interceptor drones, which are already actively used to shoot down Russian quadcopters and reconnaissance drones. Every week, these drones shoot down about 50 small drones of the Russian Federation.
Medium interceptor drones with a fixed wing, which are currently being tested. They will be implemented by the end of this year. According to “Newsweek”, these drones will be able to intercept Russian drones at a distance of up to 60 kilometers. Their functions also include reconnaissance missions.
Large long-range interceptor drones, designed to destroy Iranian Shahed drones (known in Russia as “Gerani”). To effectively combat such drones, these drones must have a speed of at least 200 km/h and a range of 200 to 500 km. Currently, there are no such drones in Ukraine, but their development is planned for 2025. Now Shahed is being destroyed by Western Patriot and Iris-T missiles, but the cost of these missiles is much higher than the price of the “Geranai” itself.
It is important to note that Ukraine uses World War II technologies to increase the power of drones. For example, laser sensors are attached to the detonators of unmanned bombs, which allows you to precisely determine the moment of detonation and significantly increase their lethality.
