Russians will likely soon launch up to 1,000 UAVs at Ukraine at time, - The Economist.
It is likely that Russia will soon be able to launch about 1,000 attack drones during air attacks on Ukraine.
According to Censor.NET, The Economist writes about this.
Production of "shaheds" in the Russian Federation
The publication recalls that a year ago, 30 attack drones attacking Ukraine in one night was considered something out of the ordinary. Now, Russia is using hundreds of UAVs, including 298 UAVs on the night of 25 May, which is probably a record high.
"Last year the Kremlin was producing around 300 Shahed drones a month; the same number now rolls out in under three days. Ukrainian military intelligence says it has documents that suggest that Russia plans to increase its drone production to 500 a day, suggesting that attack swarms of 1,000 could become a reality," the report says.
Modifications of Russian UAVs
The Economist, citing Ukrainian engineers who disassemble and analyse enemy attack UAVs, writes that the latest models are not affected by Ukrainian electronic warfare - they no longer rely on jamming GPS, are controlled by artificial intelligence and use Ukraine's own internet and mobile network. The engineers said they recently found a note inside one of the drones they were disassembling. The note stated that the drones are controlled by Telegram bots that send real-time flight data and video to operators.
According to the newspaper, not so long ago, drone hunting was mostly carried out by mobile groups with cheap machine guns, shoulder-fired missiles and short-range artillery.
Now, according to an air defence officer, Colonel Denys Smazhnyi, UAVs regularly manoeuvre around these groups. At first, they fly low to avoid detection, and then abruptly rise to 2,000-2,500 metres as they approach cities. Ukraine is therefore using helicopters, F-16 fighters and interceptor drones to combat UAVs, which have begun to show good results.
How can Ukraine counter Russian attacks?
A senior official told the newspaper that air defences around Kyiv still shoot down about 95% of the drones launched by Russia. But the 5% that get through cause serious damage.
At the same time, Ukraine still has a chance to fight drones and cruise missiles, "but the outlook against ballistic threats is bleaker". It is noted that in the Western world, the US Patriot system has a de facto monopoly on ballistic missile defence. Ukraine currently has at least eight Patriot batteries, although at any given time some of them are damaged and under repair.
"The problem is that Ukraine has slipped from being a priority for the Biden administration to just one of only many potential customers competing for limited production under Donald Trump. Lockheed Martin, which builds the Patriot systems and their PAC-3s, is increasing its output to 650 missiles per year. But this is about 100 fewer than projected Russian production of ballistic missiles ... It usually takes two PAC-3 interceptor missiles to intercept a Russian ballistic missile," the report says.
The publication notes that Ukraine may have to develop a "survival strategy that pairs air defence with air offence and deterrence".
