Ukraine's National Guard unveils new multiple rocket launcher
Source: Commander of the National Guard Oleksandr Pivnenko
Details: The system is said to offer exceptional mobility and cross-country capability, reaching speeds of up to 100 km/h, including off-road conditions.
The maximum firing range is up to 40 km.
Quote from Pivnenko: "The installed electronic warfare systems allow us to counter enemy drones and radar, reducing the likelihood of detection.
The new MLRS meets the need for compact and manoeuvrable systems capable of supporting company- and battalion-level units. In the context of the ongoing war, the mobility and low visibility of the system enable the National Guard to effectively strike targets. Cooperation with electronic warfare and aerial reconnaissance units helps avoid counter-battery fire."
Details: Pivnenko emphasised that the system aligns strongly with the tactics of "manoeuvre warfare, where speed and coordination are decisive".
Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Crop Duster Armed With Air-To-Air Missiles Appears In Ukraine
The apparent latest addition to Ukraine's growing series of ad-hoc anti-drone measures is one of its most impressive so far: a propeller-driven agricultural aircraft toting infrared-guided air-to-air missiles under the wings. While the operational status of the modified aircraft is unknown, the development highlights continued Ukrainian innovation in terms of extemporized air defense systems and the use of repurposed legacy missiles. The turboprop-powered Zlin Z-137 Agro Turbo is seen swooping low over a Ukrainian cornfield, very much its traditional operating environment. In this case, however, it sports a single R-73 air-to-air missile under each wing. The agricultural plane also appears to have received a military-style dull gray overall paint scheme, with white identification stripes on the rear fuselage to reduce the risk of 'friendly fire.' Details of the date and location of the video are not immediately available. Moravan Z-137 Agro Turbo turboprop aircraft, modified for R-73 air to air missile launches, was spotted in Ukraine. Most likely used to intercept Shahed kamikaze drones or reconnaissance drones. — Special Kherson Cat (@bayraktar_1love) August 8, 2025 The Czechoslovakian-built Z-137 was the ultimate development of the Zlin Z-37 Čmelák (meaning bumblebee), which was powered by a Soviet-built Ivchenko radial piston engine and was first flown in 1963. The subsequent Z-137 switched the radial for a turboprop, normally a Walter M-601B turboprop, offering improved performance and efficiency. Serving mainly as a crop-duster, more than 700 of all variants were built up until the mid-1980s, and these saw extensive service around the Eastern bloc, mainly on its expansive collective farms. It's unclear exactly how many of these aircraft are available to Ukraine, or if additional examples have been procured from other should be noted that this is by no means the first agricultural aircraft to be repurposed for a combat role. Significantly, the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) earlier this year introduced the OA-1K Skyraider II. This is a militarized derivative of the popular Air Tractor AT-802 crop duster, although its long-term future remains clouded by serious questions about how the Air Force will actually make use of the OA-1K, as the service increasingly prepares for future high-end contingencies. In Ukraine, however, the Z-137 appears to fulfil a much more niche role as a drone-killer. TWZ Intriguingly, as well as the heat-seeking missiles, further inboard, the aircraft has a pair of hardpoints fitted with cylindrical stores. While these have the appearance of drop tanks for additional fuel, their purpose is unclear at this point. Potentially, they could be gun pods, although they don't directly match any type known to be in Ukrainian service. Some kind of disposable store, for ground attack, remains a less likely possibility. It's also possible that they are remnants of the aircraft's previous crop-dusting career. As for the R-73, which is known to NATO as the AA-11 Archer, this has become a very popular interceptor to arm various different extemporized air defense systems brought into action by Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion began. In their land-based applications, these systems are commonly known as 'FrankenSAMs.' Examples that use R-73s as effectors include the Gravehawk surface-to-air missile system, which the United Kingdom and Denmark developed for Ukraine, and which fits inside a modified ISO shipping container. Ukraine has also fielded modified 9K33 Osa (SA-8 Gecko) wheeled air defense vehicles armed with R-73 missiles instead of their usual 9M33 interceptors. The slightly mad scientists at the UK MOD have revealed the Gravehawk surface-to-air missile system for Ukrainian service. The entire SAM system fits in a standard shipping container, carries a pair of converted R-73 AAMs, and can be quickly deployed off the back of a flatbed. — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) February 12, 2025 The Ukrainian military has also introduced R-73-armed uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), an application known locally as the Sea Dragon. Footage from Russian Ka-29 helicopter engaging Ukrainian USV with R-73 air-to-air heat-seeking missiles. — Clash Report (@clashreport) May 6, 2024 Of course, R-73s primarily equip Ukraine's Su-27 and MiG-29 fighter fleets. As TWZ has previously written about the R-73: 'The R-73, in air-launched form, has a maximum range of 18.6 miles against a head-on target of 8.7 miles against a tail-on target. The R-73 is a high-off-boresight (HOBS) weapon, with a seeker that can articulate in any direction much farther than a traditional heat-seeking air-to-air missile with a fixed non-HOBS seeker that stares directly forward. Aided by a helmet-mounted sight, the Archer can be launched in air-to-air engagements against targets with off-boresight angles of +/-75 degrees. This gives the R-73 the potential to be a particularly potent, albeit improvised threat for locking onto and engaging dynamic targets with minimal assisting sensors…' It's not immediately clear how the pilot of the Z-137 would target an aerial threat, with no obvious sign of a sensor system fitted to the aircraft. Some surface-launched systems armed with R-73s have appeared with infrared sensor balls to spot and track targets and cue the R-73 missiles to them, which we will discuss in a moment. The Z-137's launch rails appear to be the same APU-73 adapters that provide the usual interface between the R-73 and an aircraft pylon. Unclear is whether or not the pilot has a helmet-mounted sight, often used in conjunction with the R-73 aboard fighters to make the most out of the missile's high-off-boresight capabilities, but integration of the missile without this item would not be a big problem. It would be limited to a fixed field of view though, with the launching aircraft needing to maneuver the target into that window so the seeker can lock on. Perhaps the ultimate goal is to integrate a targeting system on the aircraft, bearing in mind the considerable Ukrainian experience in working with these kinds of improvised air defense solutions. Having a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) on the plane would be one option and would instantly add a day/night search and targeting capability. The armed agricultural plane is another example of Ukraine leveraging existing capabilities within its existing arsenal — in this case, together with a civilian asset — to help rapidly provide badly needed additional air defenses. In particular, the Z-137/R-73 combination will be intended to deal with Russian long-range kamikaze drones. Without sensors, the aircraft would be primarily of use during hours of daylight, although night-vision goggles would provide a possible workaround. Ultimately, the missile-armed Z-137 could also be integrated within the well-established Ukrainian system for tracking drones, which includes acoustic sensors, spotters, and radar information, among others. The system is already widely used by Ukrainian drone-hunting mobile fire teams and ground-based air defense units. Where a data connection is possible, the Z-137 could also be plugged into that system, or otherwise work with ground-control intercept (GCI) via radio. In particular, the scale of Russian drone activity over the country means that Ukraine is employing a wide range of air defense systems to counter them. Putting aside non-kinetic options such as electronic warfare, these extend all the way from mobile fire teams equipped with machine guns and searchlights to Patriot air defense systems with their long-range surface-to-air missiles. While the Z-137 seen in the one video is fitted with R-73s, it's also possible that the aircraft could be adapted to fire other missiles provided to Ukraine, such as the ASRAAM or U.S.-made AIM-9L/M Sidewinders, and even the much more advanced AIM-9X, all of which Ukraine has also received. At this point, it's worth noting that we don't know whether the adapted Agro Turbo is in operational service. It may well still be undergoing trials, and it's by no means certain that such a modification will begin to be more widely fielded. However, the appearance of the Ukrainian Yak-52 primary training aircraft armed with a hand-held gun underscores the lengths that the country is willing to go to combat the drone menace. Russia, too, has at least tested a very similar solution, albeit with a fixed underwing shotgun. Ukrainian Yak-52 which is used to hunt down Russian reconnaissance UAVs over the southern Ukraine. Video from a Russian drone. — Special Kherson Cat (@bayraktar_1love) June 8, 2024 Regardless, the new development reinforces the fact that Ukraine has plentiful stocks of R-73s and suggests that these missiles are judged to be a very useful addition to its air defense arsenal, with the versatility to be launched from a variety of platforms, in the air, on land, or at sea. It should be pointed out that slow-moving aircraft of another kind, namely helicopters, are growing in importance for counter-drone work. Israel has long used attack helicopters to deal with drone threats, and the U.S. Army is also increasingly looking at the potential of its AH-64 Apaches to target uncrewed air systems (UAS). At the other end of the scale, crewed fighters are being called upon for counter-drone missions with notable regularity. This is especially Ukrainian Air Force jets that have been tasked with hunting down Shahed drones since they first emerged on the battlefield. Compared to these, an armed agricultural plane offers a much longer response time, meaning it has far less ability to run down multiple targets quickly. Nonetheless, it could be useful in more of a 'picket' role, patrolling certain sectors of airspace. In the past, TWZ has suggested that the aforementioned OA-1K might also have value in this kind of mission. At the same time, the sight of a missile-armed crop-duster over the Ukrainian plains is a further reminder that Ukraine is in desperate need of all kinds of air defenses. While Western allies have provided some very capable air defense systems, these have been small in number, and their capabilities are best employed against higher-level threats. As long as Russia keeps up its drone bombardment, platforms armed with R-73s will continue to provide a useful stopgap. We will await with interest further news of the armed Z-137 and its potential success in this role. Contact the author: thomas@
Forbes
2 days ago
- Forbes
Russia Has An Arsenal Of New AI Drones Built With Smuggled U.S. Chips
Intelligence images of a downed Shahed MS001 drone with NVIDIA Jetson Orin AI hardware Ukraine MoD The drone war in Ukraine has become an AI arms race as both sides rush to deploy AI-enabled systems which are immune to radio interference, making protective jammers useless, and which can find and attack targets on their own. This arms race is driven by hardware from the world's biggest company, NVIDIA. Sanctions should prevent Russia from acquiring NVIDIA hardware, but their chips have been found as key components in the latest Russian, with several different types deployed all using NVIDIA hardware. NVIDIA is the world's largest company by market value, and the first ever to break the $4 trillion barrier. NVIDIA headquarters in Santa Clara of Silicon Valley, California Anadolu via Getty Images The company is incredibly successful, with an estimated an estimated 85% of the global AI chip market, because it makes what everyone wants: powerful hardware to drive AI. The chips, known as GPUs (Graphics Processor Units) or accelerators, differ from the typical computer chip or CPU (Central Processing Unit) in being able to handle lots of small tasks simultaneously rather than applying more power to a few tasks. This is parallel processing, and it is essential for most types of AI, which involve huge datasets. Their success is reminiscent of the chip wars of the 1980-90s when desktops PCs ground slowly through large spreadsheet calculations and other complex tasks. CPU power was vital and Intel rose to dominance, with ever-faster clock speeds and transistor counts in their 386, 486 and Pentium processors. NVIDIA is doing the same with GPUs in the 2020s, producing every more capable versions and outpacing the competition. NVDIA has several different families of chips for different applications, including high-power units for data centers and compact, low-power Jetson boards for edge devices like consumer electronics – and drones. Such single-board computers cost just a few hundred dollars. Timelapse image of AI-powered racing FPVs traversing the course faster than human pilots Regina Sablotny This is highly capable hardware. In 2021, a team from University of Zurich (UZH) led by Davide Scaramuzza demonstrated an AI system using a Jetson computer on a racing drone which was able to beat world-class human pilots for the first time. This system relied on external motion trackers to give the drones data, giving them an unfair advantage. But by 2023 , the UZH team had developed an AI system which was able to beat human champions using just onboard sensors and processing. 'We are very excited as this is the first time that AI beats a human in a physical sport designed by and for humans,' Scaramuzza told me at the time. The feat was replicated recently in Dubai when an AI-enabled drone from TU Delft, having beaten all the other AI drones, competed head-to-head against the human FPV racing winners in an AI vs Human Challenge, and won. Again, the teams used Jetson-based computers. 'Even in our earlier work, we had more than enough computational headroom,' Scaramuzza told me. The earlier version used the older Jetson TX2. Now drones have the new and more capable Jetson Orin which offers at least ten times as much computing power. 'Some of the algorithms we developed for our drone racers have found their way into companies like Skydio and Zipline, where several of my former students now work,' says Scaramuzza. While there is no indication that the software developed by UZH is being used Ukraine, others are certainly using AI-enabled systems powered by the same hardware, and which may be equally capable in terms of matching human operators. Back in 2023 Russian Lancet attack drones – a 35-pound weapon with a reach of 25 miles and a warhead capable of taking out a tanks – were found to have an NVIDIA Jetson TX2 'brain.' Smugglers reportedly ship the chips in small batches labelled as other components, sending them via several third-party countries to reach Russia. Frame of a Lancet attack with video with the 'target locked' indicator at the top of the screen showing it is in automated mode Russian MoD The Jetson drives AI giving Lancet 'lock on target' function allowing the operator to designate a target within the field of view. The Lancet then track the target, following it and running into it even if the communication link is lost. In 2024 this automated system appeared to be performing poorly, for example hitting a shadow next to the target rather than the target itself. For a time the function appeared to be disabled. But it was restored, presumably after software upgrades, and appears to have improved considerably. From data published on Russian weapon performance tracking site LostArmour in 2024 about 30% of Lancet hits involved automated guidance , that figure is now up to almost 60%. Now two new types of Russian drone have recently been found with the Jetson Orin. A third has entered services which likely uses the same technology. One of these was a new version of the Shahed attack drone, known as MS001 which in addition to the NVIDIA processor also had a thermal imager and digital modem. In a LinkedIn post, Ukrainian Major General Vladyslav Klochkov said that this was not simply a drone. 'This is a digital predator. It doesn't carry coordinates, it thinks,' stated Klochkov This is an exaggeration – the MS001 also has a satellite navigation system, so clearly it does carry co-ordinates. But unlike the basic Shahed which relies entirely on satellite navigation, the MS001 can identify objects on the ground using its thermal imager and AI and attack them. A downed Russian V2U attack drone with AI running on NVIDIA Jerson Orin hardware Ukraine MoD The second new drone is the smaller V2U. A report in Ukraine's Defense Express says this four-winged drone, similar in layout to the U.S. Switchblade 300 but carrying an 8-pound warhead, has a range of over 25 miles. The V2U has a high-resolution camera and a laser rangefinder, which, like the TERCOM system in the Tomahawk cruise missile allows it to navigate by comparing the terrain to a digital map. Like the MS001 it has a digital modem which connects to Ukraine's cellphone system to communicate with the operator. Again, the V2U is powered by an NVDIA Jerson Orin, which allows it to fly up and down roads looking for targets. 'They don't distinguish between military equipment and a civilian bus,' according to one Ukrainian report. According to other reports cited by Ukrainian electronics expert Serhii Flash the V2U works in teams, with each team member having different color makings on their wings. This likely allows the drones to distinguish each other and carry out their attacks in sequence without conflict and without needing radio communication. According to Flash, the drones are stacked one above another like circling vultures, so for example the 'blue' drone waits its turn until the 'red' drone has attacked. This is a basic version of swarming behavior but a significant step forward. Flash also notes that the V2U has limited intelligence when it comes to target discrimination and one attacked a public toilet rather than a vehicle. The Tyuvik, which resembles a miniatures Shahed, is another autonomous attack drone Russian MoD The third new AI Russian drone is known as Tyuvik ('Levant sparrowhawk') which resembles a scaled-down Shahed and is now in mass production. It has a range of 20 miles and carries a 4-pound warhead; it can find and attack striking moving vehicles and its intended targets are armored vehicles. No example has been captured and analyzed yet, but like V2U this flies to a specified location and then finds a target using machine vision. The makers Statim say Tyuvik is built from low-cost commercial components. Given that Russia does not make any suitable AI hardware, this again suggests an off-the-shelf Jetson Orin. All three drones may use similar software for navigation and target location, like the portable Prism software from FLIR now being integrated on U.S-made attack drones or the open-source software developed by Auterion. (A shipment of 33,000 new Auterion Skynode strike drone systems to Ukraine was announced recently). This type of setup allows new type of drone to be turned into autonomous 'digital predators' rapidly and at minimal cost. And as the software for navigation, flight and targeting is improved, the improvements can be shared across every drone type in the fleet. New functions, such as dogfighting or swarming, can be added as needed. We are at the dawn of the age of AI drones. Thanks to the ready availability of NVIDIA Jetsons, such technology is available to literally everyone. This genie is now very much out of the bottle. In the near future, 'dumb' drones lacking onboard AI may be as outdated as biplanes.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Behind the US Army's drone push is broken gear, bad signals, and a lot of lessons that still need to be learned
The drone wars are here, but US Army soldiers are still working to get the hang of the technology. Business Insider's Graham Flanagan recently visited soldiers training on drones in southern Germany. The Army is running into failures and problems, but leaders say soldiers are learning for the next war. A lieutenant needed a drone up in the air to get a read on the enemy forces. Responding, a drone operator slipped on his headset, but the video feed was out. It was a no-go for recon. The quadcopter drone had gotten snagged on a branch during maneuver, and the soldier's frustrated effort to get it loose apparently damaged the cord. With the drone down, the only option was for soldiers to physically move into position for a visual. The combat action wasn't real, but the challenges experienced were. The drone wars are here, and there's a lot to learn. As the US Army drone pilot told Business Insider's Graham Flanagan during the recent exercise in southern Germany, issues arise because "we're still so new to having drones with us." Drone warfare has dominated the war in Ukraine, and now, the Army is increasingly recognizing it as a key element of future warfare. It is a capability that can't be ignored; however, the service has a lot of catching up to do. During the exercise at the Hohenfels Training Area, about 400 miles from the western border of Ukraine, where drones are constantly buzzing about the battlefield, Business Insider got an up-close look at soldiers with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment testing their own drones as part of a larger mission to capture an area of defended trenches. The drones themselves cost just about $500 and are assembled by drone pilots in the regiment at the Drone Innovation Cell in Vilseck. "All of them were completely designed, built, and flown by 2CR soldiers," Capt. Ronan Sefton, an intelligence officer with 2CR, told Business Insider. Off-the-shelf Chinese-made drones like the Russians and Ukrainians have used in battle aren't an option, so for the Army, that means starting from scratch. At the innovation cell, soldiers donned headsets lighter than the ones commonly used for virtual reality or video games and tested the drones. Developing the systems on the spot, the soldiers switched out parts on quadcopters, designed and 3D printed components, and demonstrated how pilots can attach and drop payloads. The Army recently dropped a live grenade from a drone for the first time, taking a tactic seen extensively in Ukraine and applying it. Problems began to arise when it was time to take them onto the "battlefield." The first occurred when Pfc. Jaazaniah Aguigui attached his quadcopter to the outside of his rucksack. "What I'm concerned about is all this," said Sgt. Maj. Paul Hamako, pointing to the propellers on the drone, "is going to get, you know, you're going to get in the woodline, and it's going to get hung up on stuff." He called it. When Aguigui was following his fellow soldiers through the forest of the training area later, that exact scenario occurred: his drone was caught in the thick vines of a shrub, and he had to quickly rip the vine apart to keep moving. The hiccup, he suspected, is what led to one of the drone's cables malfunctioning later when he needed it to survey the area. "I wasn't even paying attention to the tree, kind of got tunnel vision and wanted to just follow the dude in front of me and ended up getting caught," he told Business Insider. He explained that transporting the drone on the outside of the rucksack was something he hoped would work, but the drone being exposed to the environment turned out to be a problem. What might be fine for an open field gets complicated in the woods. Army drone operators encountered several other problems with their drones during the exercise. One encountered range trouble and a loss of GPS. Another pilot tossed on a headset for a first-person-view drone but ran into problems with a bad signal connection on the first attempt to scout the area, with a ridgeline causing trouble. Tinkering with a drone in the field, Pfc. Caleb Johns realized he didn't have enough screws on hand for the work. "So either way, we can't fly anymore," he said. They went through multiple drones trying to support the reconnaissance operations but ran into a string of issues before they could get a pair up to complete the mission. These connectivity and hardware issues discovered during testing of the drones at the exercise were important feedback, though, helping prepare the Army for a kind of warfare that has exploded onto the scene. "We have to work through some problems in the field because we're innovating at a speed that we kind of haven't seen before in the past," Hamako explained of the ongoing work, adding that "it's a really great thing that we're doing right now, and that's a good problem to have." And it wasn't all struggles. Army pilots executed recon tasks and harassed hostile forces using drones. But broadly, the US military has a lot to learn about using small, cheap uncrewed aerial systems like those that have become a defining element of war in Ukraine. There are growing pains in learning drone warfare, in learning from the fighting in Ukraine, where both sides have ramped up their use of all types of drones and uncrewed vehicles for intelligence and conducting strike missions. The Army appears to be behind the curve, but it's embracing the use of these drones in a big way as part of its massive transformation initiative unveiled earlier this year, which heavily focuses on drones with plans to give every division 1,000 of them and counter-UAS systems within the next two years. The transformation is shaping up to be one of the Army's largest overhauls since the Cold War's end and is estimated to cost about $36 billion over the next five years. Army officials have said it is designed to increase lethality and readiness in the service and is focused on the needs of individual warfighters. Across the Army, soldiers are learning how to operate drones through trial and error in the field. In the Indo-Pacific, for example, soldiers have been learning how weather and temperature impact flight duration and takeoff. The military is also adapting to the dynamics of the drone market, long dominated by Chinese companies, and pushing US defense companies to produce more drones and essential components. Read the original article on Business Insider Solve the daily Crossword
