Kamikaze drones: How Russia and Ukraine are using this weapon against each other

Once it hits the target, the explosive detonates, destroying the drone in the process.

It has a wingspan of 2.5 meters and is difficult to detect by radar.

“They fly low,” says military expert Justin Crump.

Iran’s ‘Martir-136’ is relatively cheap and costs around 20 thousand dollars.

The picture of how many ‘Geranium-2’ drones Russia has is still unclear.

But the US says that Iran is going to deliver hundreds of these drones to Russia. Iran has denied the US allegations.

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It is unclear whether Ukraine has used suicide drones against Russia, but experts believe they were used in recent attacks on Russian ships docked at a Russian military base, the Sevastopol Air Base and the port of Sevastopol in Saiki, western Crimea.

“If you look at the bursts of these attacks, they seem to be very small in scale,” said Dr Marina Miron, a security studies researcher at King’s College London.

“I suspect these are Fedayeen drones made in Ukraine, loaded with explosives.”

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Ukraine’s military has mainly Turkish-made ‘Peraktar DB2’ drones.

It is like a small ship and comes with a camera.

It can also be equipped with laser guided bombs.

“At the start of the war, Ukraine had fewer than 50 ‘unarmed TB2’ drones,” says Dr Jack Watling, an expert at the Royal United Services Institute (Russian), a think tank.

Russia also has smaller ‘Orlan-10’ drones that can be fitted with cameras and small bombs.

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Russia and Ukraine – Both sides have drones capable of locating and destroying enemy positions.

Dr. Jack Watling says, “Russian Arlan-10 drones can destroy enemy targets in just three to five minutes, while it would take 20 to 30 minutes to launch such an attack.”

Despite limited military power, drone power has helped Ukraine a lot, says Dr Marina.

“Before if you had to attack an enemy position, you would send an army to attack and some of your soldiers would likely die in the encounter…”

“But now the picture has changed … and you have to risk the drone.”

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In the first few weeks of the war, Ukraine’s ‘unarmed TB2’ drones were widely praised.

Dr Marina says, “Initially they were used in attacks on weapons stores. This drone also played a role in the sinking of the Russian warship Moskva.”

However, Russia’s air defense system has destroyed many unguided drones because they are large in size and not very fast.

Military drones are expensive in terms of cost. An unpowered TB-2 missile drone costs US$2 million.

That is why both sides, especially Ukraine, have used small and commercial drones.

‘DJI Mavic 3’ is one such drone which costs £1700.

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These commercial drones are equipped with small explosives and can be used for spotting enemy positions and for direct attacks.

Dr. Marina says, “Ukraine doesn’t have the ammunition stockpile that Russia does. But with the help of drones, they’ve been able to make better use of their limited resources.”

But commercial drones are less powerful than military drones.

The ‘DJI Mavic 3’ has a total flight capacity of only 30 kilometers and can only fly for 46 minutes.

Cheap and small drones are only capable of flying for short periods of time and not even for long distances.

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“Russia uses radar defense systems against military drones and electronic devices against commercial drones,” says Dr Marine.

“Russian soldiers have stopper guns that can fire electromagnetic pulses so commercial drones can’t fly with GPS.”

Russian players also use online systems. One such technology is ‘Aerospace.’ This prevents communication between commercial drones and their operators.

The system can disable drones en route, instruct them to return to their bases and prevent the operator from transmitting information.

According to the Royal United Services Institute, Ukrainian drones don’t even last a week.