Russia appears to be launching its exploding Shahed-style drones from American-designed pickup trucks
The footage showed how the drones can be launched from the bed of pickup trucks.
Iranian-made Shahed drones and homemade Russian versions have been used in worsening attacks against Ukraine.
Newly aired state media footage showed Russia operating what look to be American-designed Ram pickup trucks with Shahed-style drones ready for launch in the back.
Zvezda, the Russian defense ministry's TV channel, released a video on Sunday spotlighting the large Yelabuga drone factory in the Tatarstan region, which is where the domestically produced version of the Shahed-136 is built.
While the footage primarily focuses on intricate manufacturing processes inside the sprawling factory, it also offers insight into how the deadly and highly destructive drones, known by the Russian designation Geran-2, can be launched.
The video shows at least one clearly identified American-designed Ram truck, with a drone mounted on the bed, charging down a runway-style strip of road surrounded by large mounds of dirt that could be designed to protect the site from attacks.
Additional frames in the footage show several drones taking off from unidentified black trucks with steep climbs, resembling airplanes.
At another point, the video shows five stationary black pickup trucks, all with drones mounted on the back. It also reveals the storage shelters in which the drones are kept before their potential use in the strikes against Ukraine. Like other truck-mounted launchers, the vehicles provide a flexible and mobile launch option.
The exact make and model of all the pickup trucks featured in Zvezda's footage are unclear. Stellantis, a multinational automotive group that owns Ram, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The Iranian-made Shahed-136 is a one-way attack drone, or loitering munition, that can linger in the air for a period of time before diving down at its target and exploding on impact.
Russia started using the Iranian-imported Shaheds to attack Ukraine in 2022, but it has since started producing them at home. The Yelabuga factory — which is more than 1,000 miles from Ukraine's border — opened in 2023, allowing Moscow to rapidly scale up drone production without relying on Tehran.
Ukraine has targeted the Yelabuga factory with long-range drones on multiple occasions.
Russia uses the Shahed-style drones in nightly attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. The bombardments have grown in size in recent months, with some consisting of hundreds of attack and decoy drones — the latter are designed to exhaust Kyiv's increasingly strained air defenses.
Some recent Western assessments suggest that Moscow may eventually be able to launch thousands of drones in a single night, a bombardment that could greatly overwhelm Ukraine's already heavily exhausted air defenses.
Ukrainians have said Russia has introduced new tactics with its Shaheds, making their attacks more complicated, and have modified the drones to make them deadlier, including by swapping out the standard explosive payloads for thermobaric warheads.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Russian parliament approves a bill punishing online searches for information deemed 'extremist'
MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian parliament's upper house on Friday quickly approved a bill that punishes online searches for information officially branded 'extremist,' the latest in a series of moves by authorities to tighten control of the internet. The legislation makes what it describes as 'deliberately searching for and accessing extremist materials' online punishable by a fine of up to the equivalent of $64. The bill, which was endorsed by the lower house earlier this week, is now set to be signed into law by President Vladimir Putin. The official definition of extremist activity is extremely broad and includes opposition groups like the Anti-Corruption Foundation, created by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and the 'international LGBT movement.' It's not clear how authorities will track down violators. Officials and lawmakers said ordinary internet users won't be affected and only those who methodically seek outlawed content will be targeted. They didn't explain how authorities would differentiate between them. Russians widely use VPN services for access to banned content, but authorities have sought to tighten restrictions and close the loopholes. The state communications watchdog has increasingly used technology to analyze traffic and block specific VPN protocols. Russian authorities have ramped up their multipronged crackdown on dissent after sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, online censorship and prosecutions for social media posts and comments have soared. Multiple independent news outlets and rights groups have been shut down, labeled as 'foreign agents' or outlawed as 'undesirable.' Hundreds of activists and critics of the Kremlin have faced criminal charges. Solve the daily Crossword
Fox News
3 hours ago
- Fox News
WATCH: Gabbard's Obama bombshell has GOP demanding accountability while Dems question timing as 'distraction'
After reports that top officials from the Obama administration allegedly orchestrated a coordinated attempt to sabotage President Donald Trump's 2016 election victory, GOP lawmakers are calling for transparency and accountability, while their Democratic colleagues are questioning the timing and credibility of the new claims. Trump's director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, released a trove of intelligence documents beginning last week that Gabbard has said show former President Barack Obama and some of his closest advisors promoted a "contrived narrative" that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to sabotage Trump. However, Democrats have insisted that congressional investigations already prove that Russia did help Trump in the 2016 election, while also questioning the timing of the allegations due to pressure on Trump to release more Epstein files. "It is profoundly dishonest, and it's dangerous," Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told Fox News Digital, in reference to the allegations from Gabbard. "What I have urged the administration to do is engage in radical transparency, make it all public and expose just how much the Obama administration knew what they were doing – that they knew they were lying. I think anybody that violated the law needs to be held accountable." But Democratic California Sen. Adam Schiff told Fox News Digital he thinks the allegations are moot, pointing to former FBI Director Robert Mueller's 2019 report, which he said "documented Russia's efforts to help denigrate Hillary Clinton, which gave a boost to the Trump campaign. "I think what Gabbard and her staff are doing is dishonest," he added. However, Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford argued it has "long been established" that the Steele dossier was "clearly a Clinton plant" and that the Clinton campaign was actually "cooperating with the Russians to be able to actually use the Russians to be able to interfere with President Trump's campaign." "What Tulsi Gabbard is pulling out is to say, 'How deep did this go into the White House that they knew about the Steele Dossier, they knew it was a Clinton document. When did they start pushing this out, and what official resources were they using to try to add validity to this to be able to undercut the election?'" Lankford said. "We got a long way to go still, but it's good to be able to get all information out, to be able to pull it out there and to say, 'Let's let everybody look at it and let the chips fall where they may.'" Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said he believed Gabbard was doing the right thing, also expressing hope for extreme transparency amid the alarming allegations. "Part of what this election was about, it was about transparency and government accountability. And that's exactly what [Gabbard] is trying to do, and that's exactly what the Trump administration is trying to do," Scott said. "Let's get the people the facts. Let's follow where the facts are. If somebody's done anything, we'll hold them accountable. So, i think the right process is what's happening." Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., a former CIA analyst, questioned the timing of Gabbard's release of the information, saying even her 10-year-old nephew understood the move as "a dodge and a distraction" to get eyes off the ongoing Epstein controversy. Amid Gabbard's document release at the beginning of last week, Trump has been facing calls from within the GOP for the release of more documents and information pertaining to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. "President Trump had four years in his first term, and all the time since then, to go after this issue, and he picks the same day that his name appears in the Epstein files to talk about Barack Obama," Slotkin told Fox News Digital. "American people are not dumb. Like, we get it. Trump wanted to talk about something different. I have to see these reports, and see how they're sourced. … I like to read and make my own assessment. But the timing can't be missed. The president is trying to dodge and distract you." While partisan affiliation may play a part in how lawmakers and the broader public view the Obama allegations released by Gabbard, Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said he thinks the issue "transcends" party affiliation. "Republican, Democrat, I mean, you know, this is something that transcends all that. This is really important," Boozman told Fox News Digital. "Hopefully we'll have open transparency so people will understand what's going on. And whatever it is, I'm sure Congress will be involved, and certainly the Justice Department is involved. So, I think these are all good things."
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
As Haiti turns to lethal drones to fight gangs, Canada is among those who are uneasy
Haiti's battle against criminal gangs has leaned into the lethal use of drones this year, with senior officials defending the tactic that some outside parties, including Canada's government, have voiced qualms about. The embattled Caribbean nation has been struggling to expel the powerful armed gangs that senior United Nations officials say have taken "near-total control" of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The gangs' reach extends beyond the capital, though, with violence surging in Haiti's central region, where three police officers and two civilians were slain this week. The Haitian National Police (HNP) is one player in the effort to oust these gangs, and the country is also receiving some support on this front from a UN-backed mission led by Kenyan police. But the state has also looked to drones to both conduct surveillance on gangs and to strike them. These strikes, led by a government-created task force and supported by private contractors, have drawn media attention for months — including when a prominent gang leader, Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier, said he'd survived a strike involving explosive drones. "The population has had it up to here, and the government cannot just sit and watch," Fritz Alphonse Jean, chair of Haiti's transitional presidential council, told the Financial Times earlier this month, arguing the strikes are needed to defeat the gangs. Yet some observers believe the use of drones to hit back against the gangs falls short of a legal standard for the use of such weapons, even if Haiti faces sustained pressure from those adversaries. "The intentional use of lethal force by law enforcement is legal under international human rights law only when it is strictly unavoidable to protect life [when] facing an imminent threat, and as a last resort when other less lethal alternatives — such as capture or non-lethal incapacitation — have been exhausted," William O'Neill, the UN's designated expert on human rights in Haiti, recently told the Economist. Canada has donated drones for non-lethal use That raises questions for Canada, which has provided drones to Haiti — though not of a type designed for lethal use, according to the federal government. "Canada has donated surveillance drones to the Haitian National Police with the intent to help reduce the danger faced by uniformed officers as they conduct patrols," Global Affairs Canada told CBC News in a statement. "None of the drone models that have been provided by Canada were designed or intended for lethal use or load transport." That said, Canada "is concerned by reports of extrajudicial executions, which are a violation of international human rights law, and continues to call on Haiti to respect all domestic and international laws in its efforts to restore security in the country, including in its use of drones." Global Affairs Canada did not clarify if Ottawa definitively knows of cases in which Canadian-provided drones have been used for lethal purposes in Haiti. But it said Haiti had agreed that the equipment provided would not be used "to commit or facilitate any violation of international humanitarian law or international human rights law." Diego Da Rin, a Haiti analyst with the International Crisis Group, a global think-tank, said the HNP needs these tools for surveillance, particularly because gangs are using them for the same purpose. "Several gangs have been using drones to collect intelligence to conduct operations," he said in a telephone interview, noting these gangs are not known to be using strike drones. The Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains, a local human rights group, said in June that it believed the state's drone strikes had killed at least 300 gang members and wounded another 400. CBC News asked the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) whether it has concerns about the lethal use of drones by Haitian forces against gangs within the country. "Regarding the lethal use of force by law enforcement in operations, it should be conducted in respect of human rights and adhere to the principles of necessity, proportionality, and precaution," spokesperson Mathias Gillmann said in an email. Gillmann said a communication channel had been established with the HNP's General Inspectorate "through which documented cases of human rights violations potentially involving police officers are referred for further investigation and the adoption of appropriate administrative and legal measures." Prolonged instability Haiti has faced years of instability following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. The country has not had a president since. Ariel Henry, who served as acting prime minister and led Haiti's government after Moïse's assassination, stepped down from his role after gang-driven turmoil erupted while he was outside the country. WATCH | Canada's ambassador to Haiti on surging gang violence: A transitional council took power after Henry's departure. The council appointed Alix Didier Fils-Aimé as prime minister last November. The challenges the government faces in quelling the gangs were on display on Wednesday, as a police union demanded officials do more to protect officers on the ground. "The government does not give the police any importance. If they took this seriously, they would have made the means and support available to the police and the military to end the insecurity," the SPNH-17 union said, in the wake of the killing of the three officers in central Haiti. "Too many police officers have fallen." The transitional presidential council said the government was mobilizing all necessary resources to investigate the killings and honour the memory of those slain.
