Latest news with #Oleksiy
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia's attack drones are flying higher and faster. A Ukrainian air defender says old machine guns aren't enough to kill them anymore.
Russia's drone attacks have become more complex and difficult to defend against. A Ukrainian team leader overseeing a mobile air defense unit said the drones fly faster and higher. He said his unit needs shoulder-launched missiles in addition to the machine guns it has been using. Russia's drone attacks are becoming increasingly complex, with enemy threats becoming harder to kill, the team leader for a Ukrainian mobile air defense unit told Business Insider. He said higher-reaching weapons are needed to beat them. Oleksiy, the deputy commander of an air defense unit with Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, said Russia's drone tactics have changed over the last few months; it is now operating drones at higher altitudes and using modified ones that can fly faster. This presents a challenge for air defenders, particularly those armed only with pickup truck-mounted machine guns. At the heart of Russia's drone attacks is the Shahed-136, an Iranian-designed weapon that Moscow now also produces at home. Historically, these one-way attack drones could fly at speeds of over 115 mph with a nearly 90-pound explosive warhead. Though the Shaheds are slower and less lethal than cruise or ballistic missiles, they are significantly cheaper, allowing Russia to launch them in large-scale attacks. Last weekend, for instance, Moscow sent 273 of them into Ukraine, marking one of its largest drone attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion over three years ago. Oleksiy, whose unit is tasked with protecting civilians and critical infrastructure on the outskirts of Kyiv, said that Russia still operates the conventional Shaheds. But Moscow is now using a modified version with an engine that enables it to travel at speeds of over 180 mph. It has also increased the explosive payloads of the old and new drones to more than double the original. Russia is using decoy drones, too. These don't have warheads but are designed to exhaust Ukraine's air defenses because they look convincing, appearing just as deadly as the real thing. And while they are unarmed, these drones can perform long-distance reconnaissance missions. Russia used to launch its Shaheds at low altitudes to avoid radar detection. However, it is now flying the drones higher, at over 8,000 feet — beyond the reach of the machine guns that the mobile units are using. BI previously observed Oleksiy's unit fielding a .50 caliber M2 Browning mounted in the bed of a truck. Oleksiy said that this newer tactic makes the Shaheds inaccessible to mobile fire groups like his — all they can do is observe them and report back. These loitering munitions can then gather in a specific area and simultaneously strike targets. He said that while the Ukrainians can still shoot them down, the kill figures "have begun to decrease." Russia's defense ministry and its embassy in the US did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the change in tactics described to BI. In a February intelligence update, Britain's defense ministry wrote that Russia could likely launch at least 2,000 drones each month for the entire year. On Saturday night alone, it attacked Ukraine with almost 300 drones, Kyiv said. "To overcome this altitude barrier and stably engage drones with firepower, mobile groups need to use additional weapons," like shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, or MANPADS, Oleksiy said. MANPADS stands for Man-Portable Air Defense Systems. In Ukraine, common examples are the American-made FIM-92 Stinger or Soviet-era 9K38 Igla. These are typically used to shoot down threats like low-flying aircraft, such as helicopters, and even cruise missiles. "Right now, there is a shortage of inexpensive, hand-held MANPADS systems to shoot down drones," Oleksiy explained. "The military is ready to undergo a rapid course in MANPADS operation and use this means of destruction when it is impossible to do so with machine guns." He said that a combined-arms approach to destroying drones, like using portable missile launchers in tandem with machine guns, would strengthen Ukraine's ability to defend itself. "If our unit were additionally equipped with a manual MANPADS," he said, "the effectiveness of destroying air targets would increase by twofold." Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Insider
Russia's attack drones are flying higher and faster. A Ukrainian air defender says old machine guns aren't enough to kill them anymore.
Russia's drone attacks are becoming increasingly complex, with enemy threats becoming harder to kill, the team leader for a Ukrainian mobile air defense unit told Business Insider. He said higher-reaching weapons are needed to beat them. Oleksiy, the deputy commander of an air defense unit with Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, said Russia's drone tactics have changed over the last few months; it is now operating drones at higher altitudes and using modified ones that can fly faster. This presents a challenge for air defenders, particularly those armed only with pickup truck-mounted machine guns. At the heart of Russia's drone attacks is the Shahed-136, an Iranian-designed weapon that Moscow now also produces at home. Historically, these one-way attack drones could fly at speeds of over 115 mph with a nearly 90-pound explosive warhead. Though the Shaheds are slower and less lethal than cruise or ballistic missiles, they are significantly cheaper, allowing Russia to launch them in large-scale attacks. Last weekend, for instance, Moscow sent 273 of them into Ukraine, marking one of its largest drone attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion over three years ago. Oleksiy, whose unit is tasked with protecting civilians and critical infrastructure on the outskirts of Kyiv, said that Russia still operates the conventional Shaheds. But Moscow is now using a modified version with an engine that enables it to travel at speeds of over 180 mph. It has also increased the explosive payloads of the old and new drones to more than double the original. Russia is using decoy drones, too. These don't have warheads but are designed to exhaust Ukraine's air defenses because they look convincing, appearing just as deadly as the real thing. And while they are unarmed, these drones can perform long-distance reconnaissance missions. Russia used to launch its Shaheds at low altitudes to avoid radar detection. However, it is now flying the drones higher, at over 8,000 feet — beyond the reach of the machine guns that the mobile units are using. BI previously observed Oleksiy's unit fielding a .50 caliber M2 Browning mounted in the bed of a truck. Oleksiy said that this newer tactic makes the Shaheds inaccessible to mobile fire groups like his — all they can do is observe them and report back. These loitering munitions can then gather in a specific area and simultaneously strike targets. He said that while the Ukrainians can still shoot them down, the kill figures "have begun to decrease." In a February intelligence update, Britain's defense ministry wrote that Russia could likely launch at least 2,000 drones each month for the entire year. On Saturday night alone, it attacked Ukraine with almost 300 drones, Kyiv said. "To overcome this altitude barrier and stably engage drones with firepower, mobile groups need to use additional weapons," like shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, or MANPADS, Oleksiy said. MANPADS stands for Man-Portable Air Defense Systems. In Ukraine, common examples are the American-made FIM-92 Stinger or Soviet-era 9K38 Igla. These are typically used to shoot down threats like low-flying aircraft, such as helicopters, and even cruise missiles. "Right now, there is a shortage of inexpensive, hand-held MANPADS systems to shoot down drones," Oleksiy explained. "The military is ready to undergo a rapid course in MANPADS operation and use this means of destruction when it is impossible to do so with machine guns." He said that a combined-arms approach to destroying drones, like using portable missile launchers in tandem with machine guns, would strengthen Ukraine's ability to defend itself. "If our unit were additionally equipped with a manual MANPADS," he said, "the effectiveness of destroying air targets would increase by twofold."
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Russia's Shahed drones are getting more dangerous — and what Ukraine is doing about it
Editor's note: Due to the security protocols of the unit featured in this story, the Ukrainian soldiers are identified by first name only. Russia's air strikes on Ukraine have become far more deadly in recent months. Part of the uptick is due to limited air defense to bring down ballistic missiles. But Russia's preferred deep-strike weapon — the Shahed drone — has gotten some major upgrades since the start of the year, including jet engines and Starlink satellite attachments, putting pressure on Ukraine's already strained air defense. The Iranian-designed Shaheds that Russia now manufactures itself have been an ever-present force in Russian air assaults on Ukraine since the fall of 2022. Long-range, high-flying, and cheap — flocks of Shaheds have become a default deep-strike weapon for Moscow. Inbound Shahed swarms have become increasingly unpredictable and deadly in recent months, Oleksiy, the commander of a mobile air defense unit that for the past two years has guarded the northwest of Kyiv from these drones, told the Kyiv Independent. Russia has been sending them in larger swarms and outfitting them with jet engines, complicating the task facing air defense across the country. Numbers scraped from the Ukrainian Air Force's reports on Shaheds incoming, lost, and shot down also show a major uptick in their effectiveness, even as the total number of Shaheds Russia sends is on the decline. One hundred and eleven made it through in February, compared to 404 in March and 424 in April. Meanwhile, the number of Shaheds that the Air Force reported as launched dropped by about a third between March and April. The increasing effectiveness of Shaheds is largely thanks to the new jet engines, which allow the drones to fly faster, carry bigger bombs, and maintain higher altitudes. Oleksiy says most of those jet engine drones travel between 380 and 400 kilometers an hour. The team clocked their record of a Shahed traveling at 477 kilometers per hour in the latter half of March, which they show off on a screenshot from the radar-based mobile application that all Ukrainian air defense units share. A year before, the max speed was in the neighborhood of 200 kilometers per hour. Similarly, the maximum payload that these Shaheds carry has tripled from about 30 kilograms to 90 kilograms. That remains a far cry from the 450 kilograms a cruise missile like the Kh-101 can carry, but Russia fields far more Shaheds. The new engines also bring these Shaheds higher in the sky, as needed, reaching a ceiling of around 2 kilometers. The vertical range of a Browning machine gun like the one that Oleksiy shoots is, he says, more like 1,800 meters. Shoulder-mounted surface-to-air missiles like the Soviet Igla and American Stingers work at higher ranges, but are in shorter supply. Russia does, however, face some limits in adding jet engines to Shaheds. They are more expensive than the two-stroke piston engines — replicas of the U.S.-made MD550 — that Shaheds started out the war with. Russia often has to import jet engine technology, sometimes with Western components delivered through third parties to get around sanctions. About half of the Shaheds that radar picks up coming into Ukraine are 'dummy' drones — no warheads, and so generally cheaper while distracting enemy fire. Many of those show up in the data as 'Lost/Fell.' The actual material of a typical Shahed is remarkably flimsy relative to what one would imagine of a weapon of war. Water condenses with the cold further up in the atmosphere, which has typically weakened the Shahed's structure. The team says the Shaheds are getting a new coating that makes them more resistant to the moisture they run into higher up. 'At lower altitudes, we have something like five or six seconds to work, when we need to find, target, and destroy them.' Russia also frequently flies Shaheds low, which is dangerous because, while are easier to hit, they are harder to detect. Land-based radar signals, the core of Ukrainian identification, don't return good location data on Shaheds flying below the horizon. Indeed, the team's radars picked up the 477-kilometer-per-hour Shahed at 300 meters above ground. Some glide as low as 100 meters above ground, giving satellites and mobile teams a tiny window of time in which to spot and shoot them down. 'At lower altitudes, we have something like five or six seconds to work, when we need to find, target, and destroy them,' said Oleksiy. More over-the-horizon radar would, he said, go a long way for groups like theirs. The Shaheds have historically also run fairly robotically along pre-planned flight paths. Now, some are avoiding spotlights like the one that one team member of the unit, Svita, uses to spot them in the sky. Light avoidance could be new programming added to Shahed visual guidance, Oleksiy explained. Their dependence on visual guidance, however, meant that Shaheds clung to familiar routes for most of the time they've been flying over Ukraine. 'They used to lay out a route for the Shahed, and it would go right along the route. It was simple to destroy them. At the moment, they react to light; that is, if you turn on the flashlights, they start making maneuvers,' said Oleksiy. Those on the way to Kyiv often stuck to the Dnipro River or the sleek new Odesan Highway that is the main thoroughfare southward to the Black Sea and the titular town, Ukraine's second-largest. That also seems to have changed recently. 'A few of them are actively guided, that is, they are being steered online. They film our positions, see us, and record us, so later they try to fly around us,' said Oleksiy. The coordinator for a number of these regional mobile defense units specified to the Kyiv Independent that some of these Shaheds are also flying with Starlink Terminals that keep them connected to pilots in Russia in flight. Ukraine's mobile defense teams have also gotten far better at shooting down drones over the past two years. Oleksiy told the Kyiv Independent that his team managed to shoot down six Shaheds flying through their little quadrant of the Ukrainian sky during March. The team's central tool is a truck-mounted Browning machine gun. A major upgrade over the past two years has been the distribution of thermal vision across the front line, which can work in times when Svita's spotlight cannot. The actual hardware many use is not that complicated, certainly not compared to what air defense groups aiming for cruise or ballistic missiles use. But these air defense teams have to work in close coordination across the entire country because Russia combines its attacks of drones and missiles and feint take-offs and launches of various MiG airplanes from airfields within range of Ukraine. But Ukraine's air defense communications are leaps and bounds ahead of where they were in 2022. Applications like Visage — developed just before the full-scale invasion — have radically improved their ability to track incoming air attacks. They are also integrated with the Ukrainian Armed Forces' ubiquitous Delta mapping and communications application. Even thermal vision targeting and shooting are linked via a tablet application. These days, mobile air groups around the country effectively share screens on the application live. Oleksiy shows off a grayscale but high-resolution hit from another team in Chernihiv Oblast, firing on a Shahed that erupts into red flames. 'Looks good, right?' Oleksiy chuckled. 'Like something out of the movies.' KI Insights analyst Mykolaj Suchy contributed data analysis to this article. Hi, this is Kollen, the author of this story — thank you for reading. The Kyiv Independent doesn't have a wealthy owner or a paywall. Instead, we rely on readers like you to keep our journalism funded. We're now aiming to grow our community to 20,000 members — if you liked this article, consider joining our community today. Read also: Ukrainian drones strike Russian ammunition depot in occupied Crimea, source says We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
BBC News
26-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
At secret test-flight facility, Ukraine's drone makers fear Russia ceasefire won't hold
At a secret location away from prying eyes, Ukrainian engineers test a long-range drone called Raybird. The machine, which looks like a mini plane with wings, is placed on a launchpad, stretched like an arrow on a crossbow and then shot into the can fly non-stop for more than 20 hours and cover a distance of more than 1,000km (620 miles). It carries out missions to destroy targets both on the frontline and deep inside their targets are oil refineries and fuel depots. But after Russia and Ukraine reached separate agreements with the US on a partial ceasefire, missions like these should well as agreeing to a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea following talks this week in Saudi Arabia, the two countries committed to stop attacking each other's energy infrastructure – something that had theoretically already been President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would implement these agreements immediately. However, Oleksiy from Skyeton, the company that develops the Raybird, doubts that Moscow would adhere to the ceasefire."[Russians punch you in the face, then the next day they make an agreement but ask to tie up your hands. So the possibility that they will continue fighting remains," explains this deal will also bring relief to estimated that this year alone, Ukraine carried out more than 30 attacks on Russia's oil infrastructure using drones and other weapons. They've recently hit some of the country's largest oil facilities, like the Ufa oil refinery about 1,500km (932 miles) from the front line and Tuapse plant in Krasnodar oil refining capacity has dropped by about 10% as a result of drone attacks, according to Moscow's recent decision to extend the ban on petroleum exports shows that they're feeling the arsenal to carry out deep strikes is only growing. President Zelensky recently announced that Ukrainian engineers have designed a drone that has a range of 3,000 km (1,860 miles). That means it could reach not only Moscow, but even locations in Siberia. Kyiv also claims that it has developed turbojet powered "missile-drones". They fly at a much higher speed and so are harder to said Ukraine has successfully tested its first domestically made ballistic weapon and upgraded its cruise missile Neptune to hit ground as well naval targets. This missile was reportedly used to attack the Russian air base in the southern city of Engels last week, although Ukrainian officials neither confirm nor deny these energy ceasefire deal is certainly good news for Ukraine too. Russia has been relentlessly targeting its power plants and stations across the country. At one point last year, Ukraine's energy generation capacity dropped to a third of its pre-war month, when temperatures dropped below zero, Russian drones hit a thermal power plant in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine. A few days later, another massive aerial attack left more than 250,000 residents of Odesa without power and lately, there has been a growing number of attacks on Ukraine's gas infrastructure. Among regular targets are underground gas storage facilities in western Ukraine and production facilities in the central and eastern parts of the country. Moscow's aim is to reduce gas production in Ukraine, which is key to the country's energy security, says Artem Petrenko, executive director of the Association of Gas Producers of the end of March, Gas storage facilities in Ukraine were only around 4% full, according to one monitoring if Russia continues its strikes, filling up those storage facilities will be extremely challenging, potentially leading to massive problems next at the testing ground, after several laps, the Raybird opens its parachutes and successfully lands in the field. Oleksiy is satisfied with the results. He says that although it's good to have a ceasefire, they still cannot afford to pause their work and the development of new weapons."Our enemy just wants to have a break, gather its strength and attack again," he says. "We must be ready for that."
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Inside the anger-fueled fight to shoot down exploding Russian drones with a truck-mounted .50 caliber machine gun
Business Insider visited a Ukrainian mobile air defense unit near Kyiv last week. The soldiers use truck-mounted machine guns to shoot down Russian drones packed with explosives. The Ukrainians said they are fueled by anger at Russia and a desire to protect their country. KYIV, Ukraine — The moment the air raid warning sounds, signaling a new Russian bombardment, the countdown starts. There are just 15 minutes on the clock. As quickly as they can, Oleksiy and his team of air defenders scramble out to their firing point, set up their heavy American-made machine guns, and get ready to start shooting down the Russian drones that have caused fear in Ukrainian cities and brought substantial destruction throughout the war. Once in position, they may be there for only an hour. On other occasions, they may be out for as many as 14 hours, sometimes through the night, waiting to gun down exploding drones. Only when the last one is down do they pack up and call it a night. Oleksiy is the deputy commander of a mobile air defense unit with Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces. It is tasked with protecting critical infrastructure and civilians in a city on the outskirts of Kyiv, the country's capital city and a frequent target for Russian missile and drone strikes. Business Insider met with the unit last week and observed how it conducts operations. The soldiers, who asked to be identified by their first names only for security reasons, said their missions are fueled by a fury at Russia and a desire to protect their homeland. "We have ordinary people, not professional soldiers, who are united by the defense of their city and the defense of the state," said Oleksiy, who, like others in this story, spoke to BI through a translator. This air defense unit was set up by Oleksandr Markushyn, the mayor of Irpin, a city near Kyiv that saw intense fighting in the early days of the Russian invasion. The unit's seven members are on and off, reporting for duty early in the morning when their two-day shifts start. Their base has everything they need to rest and train for the missions. If the Russians launch an attack, an alarm goes off, sending the soldiers rushing to their trucks. They've got just minutes to get ready for the coming battle. The soldiers drive pickup trucks equipped with flashing lights to speed through traffic. However, they usually work at night, when there are fewer cars on the road. At their firing location, which could be in an open field, they remove the camouflage net from the .50 caliber M2 Browning machine gun mounted in the bed of the truck. The net helps conceal the heavy, American-made weapon and allows the soldiers to transport it safely around the city. The soldiers carry assault rifles, pistols, body armor, radios, and other gear with them. They don't take much else. Sometimes, they drink coffee to stay alert through the long nights or eat a sandwich if they get hungry, but the mission is at the front of their minds, not the food or drink. "We are more angry than hungry," said one of the unit's soldiers, whose name is also Oleksiy. The soldiers use a spotlight that shines a bright and powerful beam of light into the night sky to help them spot the Russian drones, specifically the notorious Shahed-136, which can fly at speeds of over 115 mph and carry an explosive warhead that weighs nearly 90 pounds. They can also observe the drones through a thermal imaging device. The Russians often launch their Shaheds at low altitudes to avoid radar detection. This forces the Ukrainian soldiers to rely on visual or acoustic detection; they listen for the drone's engine noise, which sounds like a lawnmower. "They fly very low, and so we need to watch very carefully," Oleksiy said. "It may be that we can stay in position all night. This happens very often." Shaheds are not easy aircraft to shoot down. A bullet can pierce the drone, but unless a critical part is struck, it may keep flying. However, hitting the drone could slow it down and make it easier for another air defense unit in another location to destroy. Oleksiy said it's frustrating to hit one but not kill it. He said he understands that knocking one down could create debris, but "if the drone reaches where it is aimed, there will probably be even more damage." He said that scoring a kill against a Shahed will often cause an explosion overhead that they can feel on the ground. "We will feel the shock wave, which can be very dangerous." Svitlana, who works the spotlight and monitors enemy targets on a tablet, said that the soldiers train with a simulator to use the Browning. In it, they can hone their skills and be ready to engage the drones in real scenarios. Every night is different. One night, the unit could battle dozens of Shaheds for hours. Other nights might be much quieter. It's tough to know what it'll be like. "When we are just waiting here in the field, we usually discuss some everyday topics, watch, and wait," Svitlana said. "For me, this is my contribution to our safety and our victory." When the air raid is finally over, the unit returns to base. There, they can replenish ammunition, refuel their trucks with gas, eat, and rest before the inevitable next mission. And there's always another. Britain's defense ministry said last month that Russia's drone launch rate of at least 2,000 a month will likely remain the case through the year. But the Ukrainian defenders believe they are up for the task. Oleksiy, the deputy commander, said half of his group had no prior combat experience before Russia's full-scale invasion. During their two days off, the soldiers go to their regular jobs; the other Oleksiy is a teacher at a high school, and Svitlana is a teacher's assistant. "The best part of the job is when there is a result — when air targets are shot down," Oleksiy said. "It means that they did not reach their target and we were able to protect our citizens. They have light, heat, and, most importantly, they are alive." Read the original article on Business Insider
