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On January 27, Russian sources shared footage documenting a strike with a KUB-BLA suicide drone on a Ukrainian American-made AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder counter-battery radar.
The drone strike inflicted heavy damage on the radar, which was reportedly deployed near the settlement of Umanske in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
The AN/TPQ-36 was developed to locate the source of artillery, rocket and mortar fire. Kiev forces first received two Firefinder radars after the outbreak of the conflict in Donbass in 2014. More were supplied by the United States and its allies last year in response to the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.
The x-band radar scans the horizon over a 90° sector several times a second, intercepting and automatically tracking hostile projectiles, then computing back along the trajectory to the origin. It can detect and report the positions of up to ten different weapons in seconds, at a maximum range of 24 kilometers.
The KUB-BLA suicide drone which was used to target the radar was developed by the ZALA Aero Group, a s subsidiary of Russian defense giant Kalashnikov.
The drone has an operational range of 40-60 kilometers, an endurance of 30 minutes and a speed of 80 to 130 kilometers per hour. It is armed with a HE-Frag [high explosive fragmentation] warhead that weights three kilograms. As seen in the AN/TPQ-36 strike footage, the warhead of the drone explodes over the target with the help of a proximity fuze. This maximizes the damage inflicted on the target.
The Russian military has been using the KUB-BLA and other types of loitering munitions against high-value equipment of KIev forces since the beginning of its special operation in Ukraine with much success.
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Not a direct hit. That said, the blast would damage the radar. The shrapnel and Shockwave would heavily damage that from that close. It’s most likely out of commission but not destroyed. Probably a few weeks to a month to be replaced.
I’m not sure what I see here, it looks like two separate attacks on two different objects. It may have been a large radar that was hit at first. Its very unclear form the videos so I’m not sure if it was a miss like you say.
Granted it did not make direct contact but it blew up directly over the target as designed.
This is the part that caught my eye, ‘auto-matic targeting based on image’, does this mean it uses on board image recognition? I’ve been waiting for that development. Once you have small drones that can independently target themselves, you no longer need a data link to an operator. That makes is unjammable.
Direct hit is not intended with this weapon, that’s why there is a proximity fuse. It was designed that way, to explode near the target.
https://rumble.com/vwxxi8-ukraine-on-fire.html
total miss
Do a search on this system, the antenna is towed by the command unit, which is tethered to the system by 15 ft cables when operating. What you are seeing is the camouflaged command unit being hit and put out of action. Antennas can be easily replaced, command units, not so much.
Loool! Drone that costs 500$ destroyed unit that costs 55 million! They are ukies winning all ovah, as Lloyd said.
3kg tnt is not enough. double the charge. probably it is a cluster charge or a schraspnel charge, as the exzplosion is a very smoall domestic firework, rather, than a serious bomblet.
Goodnees soontheysnkswillfo broke.thesooner thbetter.whenthen thepeyrodollwarisdumpedthenthe seprics willbe really sscrewedlpnglive russiaandpres putinfukznato..frak theyankee dogturds.