Russian military experts have talked about the performance of ZALA’s suicide UAVs during the special military operation in Ukraine.
According to a representative of the Kalashnikov Concern Corporation, the Russian armed forces began to actively use ZALA Aero’s suicide unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in combat operations over Ukraine.
“The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, although not publishing detailed information about the use of suicide drones by ZALA. However, it can be seen from field photos that units have begun to actively exploit them,” said Alan Lushnikov, head of Kalashnikov Concern.
State-owned technology corporation Rostec previously announced the use of KUB and Lancet suicide drones in Ukraine, which proved to be excellent in real combat conditions. UAVs are mainly used to destroy ground targets from a distance.
KUB UAV carries a 3 kg warhead. The maximum flight time is 30 minutes and the average speed is 130 km/h. Meanwhile, the Lancet is integrated with different navigation systems: coordinate, optoelectronic, and hybrid.
The special feature is that the drone has a television communication channel, which sends images of the target and gives an opportunity to ensure that the object is indeed destroyed.
Military expert Yuri Knutov – Director of the Russian Air Defense Museum in a conversation with PolitExpert (PE) said that all ZALA drones are powered by electricity, which makes them practically invisible against enemy weapons.
According to Knutov, ZALA’s UAVs, including the KUB and Lancet, do not leave a heat signature and cannot use mobile anti-aircraft missile systems against them, because the probe does not capture the low-temperature electric motor.
“ZALA is building a factory with Kalashnikov Concern to increase production of Lancet UAVs because they have demonstrated their capabilities particularly effective during the conflict.”
“The number of weapons necessary to fully equip the army is expected to be delivered around the end of December 2022. At that time, Russia will have a sufficient number of flying equipment for missions, including suicide types. , reconnaissance and assault for platoons and companies”.
“Soldiers must have a large number of low-cost drones because they are relatively quick to fail. These vehicles will provide soldiers with additional security support.”
“Although there is still much work to be done in this direction, there are some businesses that have promised that the aforementioned problem can be resolved soon,” said the PE magazine interlocutor.
Although in the opinion of military experts as well as Russian manufacturers, their suicide UAVs have excellent performance on the battlefield in Ukraine …
But in fact, there have been cases of ZALA Aero’s suicide drones losing control signals, falling by themselves, or simply not hitting the target accurately.
Perhaps that’s why Moscow bought a large number of Iranian Shahed-136 or Mojaher-6 drones to use while being more complete than domestic UAVs.
