File image.
The Russian military has struck sites used to launch AN-196 Liutyi long-range suicide drones near the settlement of Gamaliyevka in the Sumy direction, the Ministry of Defense announced on July 17.
An Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile struck a concealed drone command post, the ministry said in a brief statement, adding that a Geran-2 suicide drone later neutralized a drone launcher nearby.
The Liutyi, developed by Ukraine’s Antonov ASTC, has a range of 1,000-2,000 kilometers and can carry a warhead weighing 50-75 kg. The drone is guided via a GPS-aided inertial navigation system (INS). Some versions are also reported to have a secondary artificial intelligence-based guidance system.
The Iskander-M used to take out the drone command post is said to have a range of nearly 500 kilometers and can be armed with different conventional warheads. The missile is guided by a GLONASS-aided INS. It can be also equipped with an optical seeker with a digitized scene-mapping area correlator system for terminal guidance.
Meanwhile, the Geran-2 has a range of 2,500 kilometers with a warhead weighing around 50 kg. Just like the Iskander-M, the drone features a GLONASS-aided INS.
In recent months Ukraine stepped up its drone attacks on Russian territories and earlier this week President Volodymyr Zelensky announced plans for a new wave of long-range strikes on Russian territories.
The Liutyi has been Ukraine’s weapon of choice for attacking targets deep in Russia, although the performance of the drone has not been as good as the comparable Geran-2.
Russian military started to hunt down Ukrainian drone units more effectively this year. This shows how much the intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance, also known as ISTAR, capabilities of the military has evolved since the start of the special military operation more than three years ago.
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