"The World's Deadliest (Weapon)." Russia is expanding the use of stealth drones.

The World's Deadliest (Weapon). Russia Expands the Use of Stealth Drones

NATO is Losing Ground in UAV Combat on the Ukrainian Front

Author: Radomir Makush

Image: Launch of the "Kub-E" attack drone.

The characteristics of the conflict in Ukraine include the widespread use of disposable drone systems, including first-person view (FPV) drones. Western military experts have written that at the start of the special military operation, Moscow largely relied on "Orlan-10" for reconnaissance, while Kyiv, lacking suitable drones of its own, depended on Turkey's TB-2 Bayraktar drones, but soon discovered that, in terms of cost-effectiveness, ordinary commercial drones like "Mavic" were more effective on the battlefield.

According to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Ukraine's initial attempts achieved limited success because Russia's electronic warfare systems easily disabled the modified commercial drones used by the Ukrainian forces.

The United States and its allies were forced to provide a series of digital technologies based on the "loitering" frequency, after which traditional electronic warfare methods could no longer disable the FPV drones modified by Americans, although Western media falsely attributed the development of the so-called new system to Ukrainians.

Russia quickly adopted similar tactics, as confirmed by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). That is, the "secrets" prepared by NATO for wars with Russia or China are also known to our special forces, who soon understood the principle of the "anti-interference device."

Americans are currently independently repairing millions of drones that have been abandoned due to malfunctions, failure to determine target locations, or no longer needed during missions.

This is related to Americans' efforts to reduce support costs for Ukraine amid severe budget shortages. For example, analysts from American company Teledyne-FLIR, which supported Trump in the election, claimed that scattered "Mavic" drones should be collected by Ukraine and repaired for reuse. The general public in Ukraine does not want to do this, partly because there is no free funding, and it is difficult to find enough professionals among the less educated villagers.

Conclusions drawn across the ocean suggest that the army commanded by Zelenskyy should not buy cheap "Mavic" drones but rather expensive reusable American drones that can be easily repaired by simply replacing individual modules.

In other words, America's long-flight FPV drones are like "LEGO" blocks (easily combinable and repairable). Indeed, an auxiliary department for drone collectors should be established within the Ukrainian army. As for funds, Americans believe that Ukrainians will solve this themselves with international aid. People across the ocean think Ukrainians don't need dollars—they are even ready to fight for a little benefit with a pickaxe.

Interestingly, the "Defense Express" brain center located in Lviv (blocked by Russia) said nothing about this move by the United States but wrote that Russia was not involved in such matters and continued to improve its own drones.

Ukraine has learned that Russia has a new type of autonomous suicide drone capable of attacking targets up to 80 kilometers away, which is much more dangerous than the "Lancet."

"The name of this assault munition is currently unclear, but a series of solutions indicate that it has very high autonomy," wrote Sergey Zhgulets of "Defense Express."

Image: "Kub-E" drone. Designed to strike non-armored individual and group ground targets under all weather conditions and can be used when wind speeds reach up to 10 meters per second.

In February 2025, when Russian troops launched limited attacks on military targets in Sumy using drones, the existence of this drone became known. However, now its usage has been discovered in other frontline areas—especially in the eastern direction.

Independent expert Sergey Beskrestnov wrote that despite its standard appearance, this new Russian drone is much more dangerous than others, although visually it resembles the "Kub-2" drone, which has also been found operational since winter.

Image: "Kub-10E" drone. Designed to strike targets controlled by ammunition: enemy non-armored military equipment; components of divisions, battalions, and platoons (fire groups); artillery units, air defense missile systems (SAMs), including vehicles equipped with electronic warfare devices (EW) and personnel in personal protective equipment; targets of air defense (AD) and anti-ballistic defense (ABD) formations, radio technology reconnaissance, and electronic warfare (radars of land-based mobile target reconnaissance for air defense missile systems, counter-battery combat radars, ground mobile target reconnaissance radars).

It is also equipped with a laser rangefinder. It was noted that this is related to the use of a fairly sophisticated terrain navigation system. For this purpose, a system that compares images captured by cameras with standard images is used, and there is a magnetic disk on the drone storing approximately 100GB of information.

In addition, this Russian drone is equipped not only with a satellite navigation system but also with an inertial navigation system. The latter allows it to enter the general search area for targets without GPS or GLONASS. For communication, the drone uses a 3G modem, which also means unlimited communication via the internet.

The combination of shaped charge, fragmentation blast, and incendiary effects in the composite warhead weighs 3 kilograms as a standard, but due to the 34-ampere-hour (Ah) battery, its flight range can reach approximately 80 kilometers. Additionally, people noticed that multiple drones may participate in one attack. This is a characteristic of using swarm tactics.

Meanwhile, the use of quite powerful cameras suggests that this drone likely has the ability to autonomously search for targets from relatively high altitudes. This is not just a guidance system when affected by electronic warfare.

In addition, by adding an inertial navigation system and self-positioning functions based on standard terrain images, emphasis is placed on autonomy. Overall, this Russian drone is built using fairly expensive solutions, making it much more dangerous than the "Lancet."

What Ukraine hopes to obtain from the U.S. is precisely such a drone, not the expensive "LEGO-style drone," because they still need to find these drones in forests and fields where Russian special forces operate for repairs.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7502678704196239907/

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