ZALA Lancet attack drone. © Marina Lystseva/TASS
On January 4 and 5, Russian sources shared videos documenting three recent strikes with Lancet loitering munitions on equipment of Kiev forces in the special military operation zone in Ukraine.
The strikes destroyed an American-made AN/TPQ-48 counter-battery radar installed on the rooftop of a public building, a Ukrainian-made Kozak-2 armored vehicle that was carrying ammunition and a modified SUV similar to the ones usually used by Ukrainian special operations forces and foreign mercenaries.
The ZALA Aero Group, a subsidiary of Russia’s defense giant Kalashnikov Concern, produces two versions of the loitering munition, the Izdeliye-52 with an endurance of 40 minutes and a three-kilogram warhead and the larger Izdeliye-51 that has an endurance of an hour and is armed with a warhead weighting five kilograms.
Both versions are equipped with an electro-optical system that allows them to detect, track and lock on static and moving targets.
Due to their low-flying profile, small radar cross-section and minimal infrared signature, loitering munitions like the Lancet are extremely hard to intercept.
The Russian military expanded the use of Lancet loitering munitions against Kiev forces in the last few months. There have been around 90 documented strikes by the system since the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.
