Latest news with #combatdrone
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A $2,500 interceptor drone built to destroy Iranian Shaheds was recorded flying at the speed of a bullet train
A Ukrainian firm released a video of its interceptor drone flying up to 195 miles per hour. That's a $2,500 first-person-view drone flying at roughly the speed of a bullet train. Speed is essential for interceptor drones because they have to chase down loitering munitions. The Ukrainian firm Wild Hornets said its Sting interceptor reached up to 195 miles per hour in stable flight — a speed that likely makes the system one of the fastest first-person-view combat drones. The startup released a video on Monday of the Sting flying over open fields in an apparent test. A speed counter on the drone's first-person-view user interface indicated that the Sting reached up to 315 km per hour, or roughly the top velocity of a standard bullet train. Business Insider could not independently verify the drone's speed. The announcement comes as the Ukrainian drone industry has been trying for months to push the limits of its FPV interceptors. Ukrainian units are increasingly looking to these low-cost drones, once a novel concept on the battlefield, as a solution against the Iranian-designed Shahed. Russia, which manufactures the Shahed locally, has drastically increased the number of these exploding drones it deploys at a time, pairing them with ballistic missiles to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. New Russian tactics that allow Shaheds to fly higher and faster have also made it more difficult for machine gun squads, a core pillar of air defense for Ukraine, to hit the loitering munitions reliably. An interceptor drone's speed is key because the uncrewed system must be fast enough to catch up to the Shahed. The Shahed-136, the standard loitering munition used in Russia's drone waves, flies at about 115 miles per hour. When reports first emerged of the Sting's existence in the fall of 2024, the drone's baseline was to fly faster than 100 miles per hour. With Monday's video announcement, it has now been recorded notching nearly double that speed. One of the industry's rising stars, the Sting is being deployed in active combat, though it's unclear at what scale. The Wild Hornets have said that one interceptor costs $2,500 and that Ukrainian pilots have already used the Sting to destroy roughly 100 Shahed drones. That's still a small contribution against the total volume of Moscow's drone attacks; Russia launched over 6,000 Shaheds and decoys in July alone. But Ukraine hopes interceptor drones will soon shore up the gap in its air defenses. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced a goal for the country to build 1,000 interceptor drones daily. Kyiv's forces generally report shooting down or disabling between 86 to 89% of Russia's Shaheds, meaning that several hundred still get through a month. The reported interception and disabling rate was 82% in May. Russia, meanwhile, has been pushing drone technology of its own. It's been reported to be testing and deploying jet-powered versions of the Shahed, which is believed to be modeled after an improved Iranian design that can fly up to 500 miles per hour. Read the original article on Business Insider
Bloomberg
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Lithuanian Leaders Evacuated Amid Combat-Drone False Alarm
Lithuanian leaders were taken to a shelter after a false alarm about a combat drone entering the Baltic nation's airspace from neighboring Belarus. Initially believing the flying object could represent a danger, possibly a Shahed drone of the type Russia deploys against Ukraine, authorities evacuated Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas and Parliamentary Speaker Saulius Skvernelis to a safe location, local news service BNS reported.
Bloomberg
27-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Russia Sharply Boosted Drone Output in May, Think Tank Reports
Russia increased combat drone production by almost 17% in May, a think tank reported, sharply accelerating output as President Vladimir Putin continued to reject calls for a ceasefire in his war in Ukraine. The surge follows the president's public demand in April for defense manufacturers to speed up drone supplies. While Russian forces received 1.5 million drones of different types in 2024, it was 'not enough' to meet battlefield requirements, Putin told officials.
