The Russian Lancet drone: characteristics and efficiency. Why was the Lancet named the main threat in Ukraine?

 

The Russian Lancet unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is considered one of the main threats to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), The Telegraph reported on July 8. Attack drones from the domestic Kalashnikov arms concern have shown high efficiency in the area of a special military operation. "The ribbon." tells us what characteristics the Lancet has, how much it costs and how it differs from other UAVs.

What is the Lancet UAV?

"Lancets" refer to such a variety of unmanned systems as barrage ammunition, he told Lenta.<url>" editor-in-chief of the magazine "Unmanned Aviation" Denis Fedutinov. This means that they can not only detect a target, but also hit it with a warhead built into the drone's design, which can be of various types and different capacities. In fact, the Lancet is a flying bomb that can scout and attack a stationary target under operator control. The UAV is capable of striking with high-explosive fragmentation warheads (to destroy manpower and light equipment) or diving at an object and exploding with it, using cumulative warheads and hitting even combat tanks. Because of this, it is also called a kamikaze drone.

Where is the Lancet produced?

The production of Lancets began as a purely initiative development of the Izhevsk company ZALA Aero, which is part of the Kalashnikov concern, Denis Fedutinov noted. Sometimes these drones are called the ZALA Lancet, after the company that made them. Currently, this model of UAV is produced only in Russia, but the developers are discussing the possibility of producing drones in other countries, said Alexander Zakharov, chief designer of the Zala Aero Group, in an interview with Rossiya 1 TV channel. He clarified that in Russia, the production of "Lancets" is organized in the building of a former shopping center, which was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Before the Lancets, ZALA Aero began manufacturing CUBE drones, which differ in performance and aerodynamic performance. The Lancet UAV was first presented to the general public during the Army-2019 military exhibition. They have been adopted by the Russian Armed Forces since 2020. Initially, it was announced that two UAV modifications were being developed — the Lancet-1 and Lancet-3. They have been tested in combat conditions during the actions of special forces of the Russian Armed Forces in the Syrian Arab Republic. With the help of "Lancets" in Syria, strikes were carried out against the militants of the terrorist organization "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham" banned in Russia in the province of Idlib. Denis Fedutinov suggested that after that, the developers "received from the military a list of requirements regarding the correction of identified deficiencies and the necessary functional additions," on the basis of which they created updated versions. Characteristics of the "Lancet"

Weight

The manufacturer produces several types of Lancet kamikaze drones, including the Lancet-1 and Lancet-3. The mass of the Lancet-1 is 5 kilograms, Denis Fedutinov noted. "The mass of its warhead is 1 kilogram. This indicates its main purpose as a means of combating enemy manpower," said the editor- in-chief of the Unmanned Aviation magazine. The take-off weight of the Lancet-3, according to the same data, reaches 12 kilograms. Including a three-kilogram warhead suitable for fighting vehicles, including armored ones.

Appearance

Visually, Russian drones resemble rockets with two X-shaped wings. Due to this, they are able to maneuver on all axes without restrictions, unlike aircraft-type drones. From the ground, the Lancets are launched using a small launcher. Price

The price of the drone, according to Reuters, is 35 thousand dollars, which makes it a profitable means of destroying enemy military equipment. For comparison, the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone, depending on the configuration, costs from 2.5 to 5 million dollars apiece. The principle of operation

"The Lancet operates in tandem with a reconnaissance drone, which, patrolling over a given area, conducts reconnaissance. After detecting the target and determining its coordinates, a Lancet flies into place, its operator chooses the best angle to attack and hits the target. At the same time, the reconnaissance drone performs objective monitoring of the results of fire damage," Denis Fedutinov said. Navigation

The Lancet complex uses several types of guidance systems: coordinate, optoelectronic and combined. The drone transmits an image of the target using a television communication channel to confirm the success of its defeat. He is able to hover in a specific area, which allows the operator to choose the right time for maximum attack effectiveness. If the target cannot be detected, the drone can be brought back, unlike a guided missile or missile. The Lancets are also capable of switching between targets and evading air defense systems.

Armament and speed

The Lancets are armed with high-explosive fragmentation and cumulative warheads. They have protection from laser weapons, but electronic warfare (EW) can interfere with their guidance. At the same time, the radars of the air defense systems almost do not see them due to the composite materials used in the design of the UAV. The maximum speed of Lancet drones reaches 300 km/h At the same time, their maximum flight time is 40 minutes, and the maximum flight range is 50 kilometers.

How does the Lancet differ from other drones?

The Lancet differs from other drones in its ability to operate without satellite navigation. This is possible due to interchangeable guidance modules. Depending on the task, you can equip the drone with intelligent, navigation or communication modules. After the initial versions of the Lancet, modified modifications were created, Denis Fedutinov noted. "Their weight and size parameters have been changed, the mass of the warhead may have been increased to more effectively defeat armored vehicles, and the most recent version uses a container launch, which increases the speed of deployment," the source explained.

How is the Lancet used in the framework of its?

The Russian Armed Forces are using Lancets to attack equipment and manpower of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of a special military operation in Ukraine. In mid-July, the Ministry of Defense showed the destruction of a Ukrainian self-propelled artillery installation by a Russian drone. A Ukrainian command and staff vehicle was also destroyed by a Lancet strike. Even if the result of an attack is not fatal to the enemy's equipment, it usually leads to the need for serious repairs. At the same time, the increase in production volumes and the saturation of parts of the Russian Armed Forces with these systems made it possible to carry out repeated attacks to increase the final effectiveness of actions.

Now Russian drones are considered one of the main threats to Ukraine. "There are a lot of them, and they cause a lot of trouble to our troops, because we don't have such weapons," The Telegraph quoted a Ukrainian soldier with the call sign Manul as saying. The success of the use of UAVs in the combat zone served as an incentive to increase their production. So, Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting with the head of Rostec, Sergey Chemezov, called for increasing the production of the latest weapons, including Lancet drones and aircraft complexes.

https://lenta.ru/articles/2023/08/09/lantcet/

Hypersonic Dagger: what kind of rocket is it and what advantages does it have?

 

In March 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the creation of the advanced Dagger aviation complex, which involves the use of hypersonic aeroballistic missiles. Putin noted in his message to the Federal Assembly that no country in the world possesses such weapons. Today it is no longer a secret that the Kinzhal X-47M2 hypersonic air-launched missile was created on the basis of the Iskander ground-based missile at the Kolomna Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering (General Designer V.M. Kashin). The adaptation of the land-based missile to be based on the MiG-31K interceptor fighter was carried out by the Mikoyan Design Bureau, headed by V.I. Barkovsky. The Central Military District began equipping aircraft with Daggers for duty back in 2017. In 2021, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Russia had a separate aviation regiment with MiG-31K interceptors armed with hypersonic Daggers. Shoigu also said that in five years, the number of carriers of high-precision weapons with a long range will grow by 30% in Russia. In 2018, in a message to the Federal Assembly, Putin noted that the speed of the Dagger rocket is 10 times higher than the speed of sound, that is, it accelerates to more than 14.5 thousand km/ h. The missiles are capable of attacking targets located at a distance of more than 2,000 kilometers and overcoming all air defense systems in service with various states. The missile's warhead has a mass of 500 kilograms and can be guided using the Russian GLONASS satellite system, as well as a GPS navigation device mounted on the rocket itself.

The Dagger missiles are equipped with a solid propellant RDTT engine, which ensures that there are no problems of possible leaks of toxic fuel, reduces the risk of fire, increases the shelf life of the ammunition and its reliability.

"Scarier than nuclear weapons": the first use of the "Dagger"

On March 18, 2022, the Russian Federation used the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system as part of its military operation in Ukraine. The missile of the complex successfully hit an underground storage of Ukrainian missiles located in a mountainous area in western Ukraine and known as "Object 711" (or "Ivano-Frankivsk-16"). It was not just a warehouse, but one of the central weapons storage bases, built back in 1955 and fortified in such a way as to withstand an atomic bomb attack. At one time, the nuclear warheads of tactical and strategic missiles of the Soviet army were serviced at the 711 Facility. In the early 1990s, nuclear weapons from the facility were exported to Russia. According to the decision of the Ukrainian leadership, most of the stocks of aviation and missile ammunition from Western Ukraine were moved to a fortified warehouse. The media reported that the "Object 711" was essentially an entire military camp at a depth of about 150 meters, consisting of two floors. This facility was considered one of the safest arsenals, but it could not withstand the Dagger strike. A rocket weighing about one and a half tons almost vertically entered the earth at a speed of several kilometers per second. Due to the enormous kinetic energy of the munition, it passed dozens of meters of ground, then broke through the powerful concrete floor of the arsenal and only then exploded. All the energy of the explosion, combined with the detonation of the stocks accumulated in the warehouse, spread through the floors of the "Object 711", as a result of which it was completely destroyed. Yevgeny Mikhailov, a political scientist and expert on interethnic conflicts, said that the Dagger is capable of reaching the most closed objects located at great depths (for example, bunkers) and hitting them, which is more terrifying than nuclear weapons.

"Dagger" fire

After March 18 last year, Kinzhal hypersonic missile systems were repeatedly used in various regions of Ukraine. So, on March 20, 2022, this missile hit a large storage base for fuel and lubricants of the Ukrainian troops in the area of Konstantinovka, and on May 9 and August 7, 2022, Dagger missiles were used against military targets in the Odessa and Vinnytsia regions, respectively. On March 9, 2023, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation published a message about a massive retaliation strike in response to Kiev's attacks on the Bryansk region of Russia. During the strikes, the Dagger complex was also used: in particular, it was used to hit a communications center in the vicinity of Lviv, located at a depth of 120 meters. On May 16, 2023, a Russian MiG-31K interceptor fighter attacked the American Patriot anti-aircraft missile system in Kiev with a Dagger. The media reported that Russia destroyed five anti-aircraft launchers of the complex, while the Patriot itself is unable to shoot down the Daggers due to its technical characteristics and lack of experience in managing the complex in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry noted that the flight speed of the Dagger missile exceeds the limits in which the Western air defense systems supplied to Kiev are capable of intercepting aerial targets. Although on May 4, 2023, the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the Ukrainian air defense system shot down the Russian Dagger missile for the first time with the help of the Patriot complex, the expert community reacted to this statement with doubt.

Earlier, the head of Rostec, Sergey Chemezov, noted a significant increase in military production in 2023, including the production of Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. Chemezov said that the volume of production of military products (primarily ammunition) They have increased by more than 50 times since February of this year.

https://dzen.ru/a/ZGXssB4Y0U6nPQwu