+

Cookies on the Business Insider India website

Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.

Close
HomeQuizzoneWhatsappShare Flash Reads
 

Russia's Lancet drone is hampering Ukraine's counteroffensive, smashing Western gear and exposing poor air defenses

Jun 13, 2023, 21:42 IST
Business Insider
A composite image showing stills from several videos posted to pro-Russian Telegram channels in early June purporting to show drone strikes in Ukraine.Insider/Telegram
  • Ukraine's counteroffensive is underway, and the destruction is evident.
  • Footage of destroyed Ukrainian vehicles is spreading, often attributed to the Lancet drone.
Advertisement

In recent weeks Ukraine has been pushing hard to retake ground from Russia, as part of a sweeping counteroffensive.

The full picture is still emerging, but in places it has been a bruising experience.

Russian officials have gleefully shared videos of piled-up wreckage, and often cited as the cause the Russian-made Lancet drone.

The Lancet is a loitering munition made by a subsection of Russia's Kalashnikov arms manufacturer. It's new — first used in 2019 — and meant for precision strikes.

James Patton Rogers, a drone expert at the Cornell Tech Policy Institute and the University of Southern Denmark, said that the type being fielded by Russia in Ukraine is the Lancet-3, an upgraded version.

Advertisement

Rogers said it has a bigger payload than its predecessors — and can likely be operated in first-person view (FPV) for much better accuracy.

He also said the drones are most effective against artillery systems, lighter armored vehicles, and older tanks.

An account associated with the Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic published a video Monday showing blasts on a cluster of vehicles which it attributes to Lancet strikes.

A still image from a video claiming to show the moment just before Russia's Lancet drones hit a cluster of vehicles.obtf_kaskad/Telegram
A still image from a video purporting to show the moment just before Russia's Lancet drones hit a cluster of vehicles.obtf_kaskad/Telegram

And Russian media went wild for a second video, which seemed to show a Lancet damaging part of a prized IRIS-T air-defense system provided to Ukraine by Germany.

Olga Skabeyeva, a prominent Russian state-media host, shared part of a report from the German newspaper Bild covering the destruction.

Advertisement

Vladimir Solovyov, another state-media personality, also gloated over the hit.

A still image showing a drone trained on part of an IRIS-T air-defense unit in Ukraine.Telegram, via Bild

Skabeyeva cited Bild's analysis that the equipment was too close to the front line — some 16 miles away — and also not guarded by complementary systems that could stop a drone. (Bild shares a parent company, Axel Springer, with Insider.)

One Russian-affiliated Telegram channel posted a series of successive videos showing the FPV feed of drones cruising in to strike what appears to be the same group of three vehicles.

The channel didn't specify the type of drone used, but Patton Rogers said the visuals were consistent with the type of feed a Lancet could produce.

An image purporting to show a Russian drone about to strike a column of vehicles in Ukraine.Telegram/BOBRMORF
An image purporting to show a Russian drone about to strike a column of vehicles in Ukraine.Telegram/BOBRMORF

Some of the videos appear to show Lancet drones finishing off a vehicle after it was already abandoned or disabled by something else. Drones can be a good way to do that without needing to get too close.

Advertisement

This video, purporting to show a Leopard in the Zaporizhzhia region — a site of heavy fighting — fits that description.

Ukraine tends not to acknowledge individual military losses. But it is clear that Lancets are active and a threat — a post from last week hyping Ukraine's air defenses noted that 10 exploding drones had been shot down.

The post — which grouped Lancets and Iranian-made Shahed drones into a single category — did not say how many drones made it through.

Air defense has long been a problem for Ukraine — and as its forces move forward it becomes harder to give them coverage without putting valuable equipment at risk, as seen with the IRIS incident.

Julian Röpcke, the Bild reporter who covered the IRIS-T attack, noted on Monday morning an example of two more armored vehicles destroyed, likely by Lancets.

Advertisement

"Sufficient air defense remains one of the biggest issues during Ukraine's offensive in the south," he said.

Patton Rogers, the drone expert, told Insider that the Lancet is "most certainly a thorn in the side of Ukrainian forces," but it is "by no means a war-winning weapon."

He noted that most of the videos showed the drones hitting lighter vehicles. He questioned whether Lancets alone could take out a heavy tank like a Leopard, given its thick armor.

"I wouldn't believe all the hype, especially when it comes to attacks on more advanced tanks and armored vehicles," he said.

"We should also note that we don't know how many of these new Lancet drones Russia has," he added. "Western sanctions have certainly made a dent in the Russian ability to produce large numbers of its most high-tech weapons."

Advertisement

Asked how Ukraine could best counter the Lancets, Patton Rogers said that commanders should be careful not to advance too quickly.

"Ukrainian forces must move slowly and in a calculated way in order to keep under the cover – the bubble – of counter-drone and ground-to-air defense systems," he said.

"Ukraine will also be utilizing its own ever longer range drone systems to hunt down and strike Lancet launch sites in order to destroy the missiles at source," he added.

You are subscribed to notifications!
Looks like you've blocked notifications!
Next Article