During the air attacks on Ukraine, russia began using new cheap drones to try to detect air defenses, film any damage and use them as decoys.
Reuters reports this with reference to a Ukrainian military intelligence officer.
For example, according to him, two new types of drones that russia has used in five attacks over the past two to three weeks, including Thursday's overnight strike, are made of materials such as foam plastic and plywood. One type has a camera and a Ukrainian cell phone SIM card to send images to the russian military.
"They identify where our mobile groups are positioned, where the machine guns are that can destroy them. They're trying ... to get a picture of where all our air defences are located," said military intelligence spokesman Andrii Cherniak.
Russia is said to be trying to adapt its tactics and test new technologies to gain an advantage in its daily missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
According to Cherniak, the new russian drones with cameras do not carry explosives, but are very similar to regular Shahed drones and fly in groups. He also added that another new type of drone contains no explosive charge or only a small one and is used as a decoy. Since it is practically indistinguishable from a regular attack drone from the ground, it still needs to be shot down, which reveals where Ukrainian air defense systems are located.
He said the new drones are likely to cost as little as USD 10,000 apiece, despite their long range, making them much cheaper to produce than air defense missiles.
According to him, the drones can also fly at an altitude of 1,000 m, which puts them out of range of machine guns and automatic rifles.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, air defense forces shot down 13 out of 17 drones and none of the four missiles launched by russia on the night of July 20. One of the downed drones was also of an unknown type.
Media found out that this UAV attacked Kyiv. Defense Express showed photos of its wreckage.
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