Experts say that Russia’s Lancet suicide drone is posing a difficult problem for Ukraine when it has destroyed many modern weapons that the West has transferred to Kiev.
Russia’s Lancet suicide drone is increasing attacks on Ukrainian military equipment in recent years.
Unlike the long-range Geran-2 UAV (which the West and Ukraine suspect is the Iranian-made Shahed-136) that Russia specializes in attacking Kiev’s energy infrastructure, the Lancet suicide drone only targets military spending.
In the past time, the Lancet suicide drone destroyed a series of valuable Ukrainian targets on the battlefield. Among these are M777 howitzers, Krab self-propelled howitzers, radar stations, and anti-aircraft radars.
In addition, the Lancet suicide drone also attacks and destroys enemy tanks, armored personnel carriers, and light armor.
The Lancet suicide drone is considered one of the most effective offensive weapons in the Russian arsenal at the moment as it specializes in destroying high-value targets with great accuracy at long distances.
Ukraine has not yet found a way to neutralize the danger of this UAV. Self-propelled anti-aircraft guns like the German-supplied Gepard 30mm are effective, but only when they appear in the right place at the right time because they have a limited range of protection.
On the other hand, the number of Gepard anti-aircraft guns that Ukraine currently possesses is not enough to cover the entire front line. Russia began modernizing the Lancet suicide drone in the middle of this year, increasing its flight time to one hour.
Russia’s state-owned defense industry group Rostec said that Moscow has equipped the Lancet suicide drone with a technology that makes it immune to laser interceptors.
Therefore, the Lancet suicide drone is now immediately effective in the special military operation in Ukraine.
Along with the statement, Russia also published clips showing this suicide UAV destroying enemy weapons. Image of Ukraine’s BM-21 multiple rocket launcher being destroyed.
Rostec Corporation in early June told Tass news agency that the country’s domestic suicide UAVs are being increasingly used in Russian combat operations in the special military operation in Ukraine.
“The KUB and Lancet suicide UAVs have proven their worth in combat. Both drones are quite fast, silent, easy to use and capable of covering long distances. tens of kilometers and has high accuracy,” said Rostec Group.
The above suicide UAVs are basically used to target ground targets at long distances.
“In particular, the Lancet suicide UAV is capable of effective autonomous combat and carries an optoelectronic system that helps it independently seek and destroy targets,” added Rostec Corporation.
The Lancet suicide drone is equipped with a number of coordinate-based, optoelectronic targeting systems.
It has a special communication channel to transmit images of targets and confirm their successful destruction.
The Lancet UAV can hit targets within a range of 40 km and has a maximum take-off weight of 12 kg.
The Lancet UAV operates under the mechanism of carrying explosives floating in the air and continuously searching for targets.
Once the target is confirmed, the UAV will perform a suicide attack like the mechanism of an air-to-ground missile.
This weapon was named “Lancet”, meaning “scalpel”, because of its ability to hit targets with high precision such as “in a surgery”,
According to the manufacturer, the Lancet has many advantages over other weapons. First, it operates under the “flying around” mechanism, which means it is always deployed in the air and ready to attack the target at any time.
Third, its cost is quite cheap compared to traditional high-precision bullets. The Lancet suicide drone is equipped with a precision strike unit, as well as reconnaissance, navigation, and communication modules. In addition, the Lancet is also resistant to laser weapons thanks to its special design.
Currently, the latest variant bearing the Lancet-3 has an impressive speed of about 110 km / h, the ability to carry a warhead weighing up to 3 kg, and is integrated with a satellite navigation system.
The Lancet-3 suicide drone has been updated with aerodynamics, improvements mainly focusing on its symmetrical X-shaped wing and the structure of the tail rotor to increase flight characteristics.
According to Forbes, Russia’s biggest challenge right now is the production of the Lancet suicide drone to reinforce the battlefield. Oleg Katkov, editor-in-chief of the Ukraine Defense Express news site, said that sanctions will likely prevent Russia from producing large quantities of Lancets for the frontline.
