MOSCOW REGION, RUSSIA – JUNE 25, 2019: A ZALA Lancet-3 attack drone developed by Kalashnikov Concern on display at the Army 2019 International Military Technical Forum at Patriot Park. Marina Lystseva/TASS
The Russian military damaged or destroyed a record 76 targets of Kiev forces using Lancet loitering munitions during the past week.
The Ukrainian losses between May 5 and 11, all documented in video by Lostarmour.info, were:
- 15 Self-propelled howitzers, including four American-made M109, one Polish-made Krab, one French-made Caesar and one Ukrainian-made Bohdana;
- 20 Towed howitzers, including nine American-made M777 and one American-made M198;
- Two multiple rocket launchers, both Soviet-made BM-21 Grad;
- Nine main battle tanks, including one German-made Leopard 1A5;
- Three infantry fighting vehicles, including two American-made M2A2 Bradley ODS-SA;
- Two engineering vehicles, including one Soviet-made BREM-1;
- Five air defense systems, including one Soviet-made Kub, one British-made AIM-132 ASRAAM based on Supacat HMT, one Strela-10, one Ukrainian-made FrankenSAM based on Soviet-made Buk-M1 and one 5P85-1 launcher of a Soviet-made S-300PT;
- Four anti-aircraft guns;
- Two electronic warfare stations, including a Ukrainian-made Khortitsa-M;
- One counter-battery radar, an American-made AN/TPQ-36;
- Six positions, including two mortar sites and one machine gun nest;
- Six vehicles of different types, including one American-made MaxxPro;
- One speedboat.
The Lancet was developed by the ZALA Aero Group, a subsidiary of Russia’s defense giant Kalashnikov Concern. The company produces two versions of the loitering munition, the Izdeliye-52 with an endurance of 30 minutes and a one-kilogram warhead and the larger Izdeliye-51 that has an endurance of 40 minutes and is armed with a warhead weighting three kilograms.
The loitering munition flies towards the designated area with a GLONASS-aided inertial navigation system. After arriving in the area, the operator utilizes an onboard electro-optical system via a two-way data-link to detect, track and lock on the target. A laser-ranging system then controls the detonation of the warhead.
The small radar cross-section and minimal infrared signature of the electric-powered loitering munition makes it very difficult to detect and intercept, thus Ukrainian attempts to stop it have been mostly unsuccessful.
Lostarmour.info documented 160 Lancet strikes during April, while the number of documented strikes this month has already reached a record 108. It’s worth noting that many strikes remain classified, which means the real number of strikes could be much higher.
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