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UA-RU-NATO | Oct 6th-20th | REPORTS

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How Russia is using Iranian killer drones to spread terror in Ukraine:​

How do they work?​

The Shahed drones that Russia has rebranded as Geran-2 are packed with explosives and are preprogrammed to loiter overhead until they nosedive into a target — reminiscent of Japan’s World War II-era kamikaze pilots who would fly their explosive-laden aircraft into U.S. warships and aircraft carriers during the war in the Pacific.

According to the Ukrainian online publication Defense Express citing Iranian data, the delta-wing Shahed is 3½ meters (11½ feet) long, 2.5½ meters (about eight feet) wide and weighs approximately 200 kilograms (440 pounds). It’s powered by a 50-horsepower engine with a top speed of 185 kph (114 mph) and has a maximum range of 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles).

READ MORE: Putin to call up army reservists over two weeks to fight in Ukraine

The upside with the new technology is obvious — trained personnel don’t need be sacrificed nor does a huge amount of money have to be spent on building sophisticated aircraft to reach a target.

In Monday’s attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said 28 drones made up the successive attack waves. The ability to deploy the small aircraft in such large numbers at any one time may overwhelm defenses — particularly in civilian areas.

But according to Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies, the Shahed only carries a 40-kilogram (88-pound) explosive charge, which pales in comparison to the explosive force that a conventional missile’s 480-kilogram (1,050-pound) warhead can deliver at a much longer range.

“It is difficult to hit serious targets with such drones,” Bielieskov said.
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www.pbs.org

How Russia is using Iranian killer drones to spread terror in Ukraine

They are precise, small in size, able to engage a target in relatively large numbers like a swarm of wasps and above all, they’re cheap.
www.pbs.org www.pbs.org
 
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