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
The Hill
22 minutes ago
- The Hill
Powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim rejects outreach by South's new president
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed overtures by South Korea's new liberal government, saying Monday that North Korea has no interests in talks with South Korea no matter what proposal its rival offers. Kim Yo Jong's comments suggest again that North Korea, now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia, has no intentions of returning to diplomacy with South Korea and the U.S. anytime soon. But experts said North Korea could change its course if it thinks it cannot maintain the same booming ties with Russia when the Russia-Ukraine war nears an end. 'We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed with' South Korea, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media. It's North Korea's first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, which took office in early June. In an effort to improve badly frayed ties with North Korea, Lee's government has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border and repatriated North Koreans who were drifted south in wooden boats months earlier. Kim Yo Jong called such steps 'sincere efforts' by Lee's government to develop ties. But she said the Lee government won't be much different from its predecessors, citing what it calls 'their blind trust' to the military alliance with the U.S. and attempt to 'stand in confrontation' with North Korea. She mentioned the upcoming summertime South Korea-U.S. military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea has been shunning talks with South Korea and the U.S. since leader Kim Jong Un's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons targeting its rivals. North Korea now prioritizes cooperation with Russia by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine, likely in return for economic and military assistance. South Korea, the U.S. and others say Russia may even give North Korea sensitive technologies that can enhance its nuclear and missile programs. Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn't publicly responded to Trump's overture. In early 2024, Kim Jong Un ordered the rewriting of the constitution to remove the long-running state goal of a peaceful Korean unification and cement South Korea as an 'invariable principal enemy.' That caught many foreign experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his predecessors' long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on the North's terms. Many experts say Kim likely aims to guard against South Korean cultural influence and bolster his family's dynastic rule. Others say Kim wants legal room to use his nuclear weapons against South Korea by making it as a foreign enemy state, not a partner for potential unification which shares a sense of national homogeneity.
39 minutes ago
Powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim rejects South Korean appeasement
SEOUL, South Korea -- SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed an appeasement overture by South Korea's new liberal government, saying Monday that North Korea has no interests in talks with South Korea no matter what proposal its rival offers. Kim Yo Jong's comments suggest again that North Korea, now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia, has no intentions of returning to diplomacy with South Korea and the U.S. anytime soon. But experts said North Korea could change its course if it thinks it cannot maintain the same booming ties with Russia when the Russia-Ukraine war nears an end. 'We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed with' South Korea, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media. It's North Korea's first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, which took office in early June. In an effort to improve badly frayed ties with North Korea, Lee's government has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border and repatriated North Koreans who were drifted south in wooden boats months earlier. Kim Yo Jong called such steps 'sincere efforts' by Lee's government to develop ties. But she said the Lee government won't be much different from its predecessors, citing what it calls 'their blind trust' to the military alliance with the U.S. and attempt to 'stand in confrontation' with North Korea. She mentioned the upcoming summertime South Korea-U.S. military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea has been shunning talks with South Korea and the U.S. since leader Kim Jong Un's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons targeting its rivals. North Korea now prioritizes cooperation with Russia by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine, likely in return for economic and military assistance. South Korea, the U.S. and others say Russia may even give North Korea sensitive technologies that can enhance its nuclear and missile programs. Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn't publicly responded to Trump's overture. In early 2024, Kim Jong Un ordered the rewriting of the constitution to remove the long-running state goal of a peaceful Korean unification and cement South Korea as an 'invariable principal enemy.' That caught many foreign experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his predecessors' long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on the North's terms. Many experts say Kim likely aims to guard against South Korean cultural influence and bolster his family's dynastic rule. Others say Kim wants legal room to use his nuclear weapons against South Korea by making it as a foreign enemy state, not a partner for potential unification which shares a sense of national homogeneity.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim rejects appeasement overture by South's new president
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed an appeasement overture by South Korea's new liberal government, saying Monday that North Korea has no interests in talks with South Korea no matter what proposal its rival offers. Kim Yo Jong's comments suggest again that North Korea, now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia, has no intentions of returning to diplomacy with South Korea and the U.S. anytime soon. But experts said North Korea could change its course if it thinks it cannot maintain the same booming ties with Russia when the Russia-Ukraine war nears an end. 'We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed with' South Korea, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media. It's North Korea's first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, which took office in early June. In an effort to improve badly frayed ties with North Korea, Lee's government has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border and repatriated North Koreans who were drifted south in wooden boats months earlier. Kim Yo Jong called such steps 'sincere efforts' by Lee's government to develop ties. But she said the Lee government won't be much different from its predecessors, citing what it calls 'their blind trust' to the military alliance with the U.S. and attempt to 'stand in confrontation' with North Korea. She mentioned the upcoming summertime South Korea-U.S. military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea has been shunning talks with South Korea and the U.S. since leader Kim Jong Un's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons targeting its rivals. North Korea now prioritizes cooperation with Russia by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine, likely in return for economic and military assistance. South Korea, the U.S. and others say Russia may even give North Korea sensitive technologies that can enhance its nuclear and missile programs. Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn't publicly responded to Trump's overture. In early 2024, Kim Jong Un ordered the rewriting of the constitution to remove the long-running state goal of a peaceful Korean unification and cement South Korea as an 'invariable principal enemy.' That caught many foreign experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his predecessors' long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on the North's terms. Many experts say Kim likely aims to guard against South Korean cultural influence and bolster his family's dynastic rule. Others say Kim wants legal room to use his nuclear weapons against South Korea by making it as a foreign enemy state, not a partner for potential unification which shares a sense of national homogeneity.
