30.11.2024 – Translated from Ukrainian via Google and OFP
In reports of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine regarding drone attacks of the Russian Federation, you can often see reports of UAVs of the “Shahed” type that were lost in location. This may mean, in particular, that “Shaheed” was either of poor quality, or was affected by EW.
The drone may also run out of fuel, causing it to crash. Ilya Yevlash, head of the public relations department of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said this in an interview with the Center for Combating Disinformation.
“There are a lot of lost drones now. And everyone is asking what it is. In fact, it can be anything – from poor quality and production of a drone that can fall because it is of poor quality,” he said.
Also, “Shahedy” can be lost in location due to being affected by means of radio-electronic warfare. In addition, drones crash in various places when they run out of fuel, and it is not always possible to find them immediately.
“They fall quite often into some reservoirs and fields. We constantly warn that you should not try to eliminate them yourself. If you find them, report them to the specialized services,” Yevlash said.
He added that “Shaheds” launched by the occupiers have a different combat unit.
“Of course, if there are 120-140 of them flying, our anti-aircraft defense is trying to eliminate the main part of them, but still some part is lost. It was just a dot on the radar and disappeared,” noted the spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces.
Yevlash also said that the Russians, in addition to kamikaze drones of the Shahed-136 type, also launch cheap analogues in Ukraine – the so-called dummy drones. The enemy uses them in order to exhaust the Ukrainian air defense system.
As OBOZ.UA reported, on the night of November 29, Russia attacked Ukraine with 132 attack drones. The defenders of the sky shot down 88 targets, dozens of UAVs were also suppressed by means of radio-electronic warfare.
Thus, 41 drones were lost in location, probably due to active countermeasures by EW, and one more drone returned to the Russian Federation.
Indeed, in the past weeks, I have seen an increase of such additions to drone attack reports … a significant increase, even. Not only that, there are usually a large portion of mafia drones going lost somewhere along the way. Ukraine’s EW capabilities are increasing so much in effectiveness that an ever larger portion of downed drones goes on their account. I can also imagine that the quality of the roach drones have been suffering a downturn. The semi-slaves building them must be getting exhausted and the parts used get junkier.
The combination of all the above is good for Ukrainian civilians, of course.