Russia has the capability to launch as many as 500 Iranian-designed Shahed assault drones at Ukraine in a single assault, however doing so every day will not be attainable, Ukraine's navy intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov mentioned on July 2, based on Suspilne.
In current weeks, Russia has intensified its drone assaults on Ukrainian cities, usually launching tons of in a single day. The biggest aerial assault because the begin of the full-scale invasion occurred in a single day on June 29, when Moscow launched 477 drones and 60 missiles throughout Ukraine.
"Launching 450–500 Shaheds on daily basis — it's simply not real looking," mentioned Budanov throughout a ceremony recognizing 5 Ukrainian intelligence achievements within the nationwide file e book, based on public broadcaster Suspilne.
"However sadly, they do have the power to do it periodically. They’ll realistically launch as much as 500 in a single strike," Budanov added.
Budanov additionally mentioned Russia is upgrading the capabilities of the Shahed-type drones by enhancing their CRPA (Managed Reception Sample Antenna) methods, which shield the drones from GPS jamming. He famous that Russian engineers at the moment are producing 16-channel CRPA antennas, that are tougher to counter electronically.
"These antennas are at present produced in Russia, however the engineer who developed this CRPA antenna was right here in Ukraine," Budanov mentioned.
"Again within the early 2000s, nobody right here wanted it, so the engineer moved to Russia. One (of the 2 engineers concerned within the improvement) has already died beneath unclear circumstances. The opposite continues to be alive, although most likely not for lengthy."
Russia has used 1000’s of Shahed-type drones all through its full-scale invasion to strike Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, usually in massive in a single day waves. Ukrainian air defenses have tailored over time however face rising challenges as Moscow improves drone resilience and digital warfare capabilities.
President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned that Moscow has launched 28,743 Shahed-type drones at Ukraine because the begin of Russia's full-scale invasion.
Budanov additionally mentioned Russia has made unsuccessful makes an attempt to develop its personal naval drones. The final identified effort got here in early June, when experimental fashions detonated earlier than reaching Ukrainian territorial waters, he mentioned.
"They didn't obtain outcomes. Primarily based on our data, they have been heading towards town of Yuzhne, looking for targets," he mentioned.
Ukraine has been utilizing domestically developed Magura naval drones to focus on Russian navy property within the Black Sea, holding a lot of Russia's fleet pinned in port.
Regardless of their small dimension, the unmanned floor vessels have confirmed efficient, together with in a Might 2 operation when Ukraine's navy intelligence used Magura-7 drones armed with air-to-air missiles to shoot down two Russian Su-30 fighter jets close to Novorossiysk. It was the primary recorded occasion of fighter jets being downed by naval drones.
The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek