That article doesn’t say, but I’d be interested in the relative cost of one of these Shahed-killer drones vs. the cost of a Shahed itself. The defense drone is probably cheaper, but by how much?
I don’t have a cite off hand, but I recall reading that this is expected to be a temporary situation. The idea seems to be that Russia will likely “catch up” and be able to defend against these new attacks within about 6 month or so. Hopefully Ukraine takes full advantage of this window, however short or long it may be.
I’m sure the balance is even more favorable when you include the cost of having the Shaheed’s target successfully destroyed or damaged if it gets through.
Both Ukraine and Russia use multiple types of drones for these purposes, and depending on the type, the cost can vary a lot. Most Ukrainian interceptor drones cost from $3000-$5000 depending on the make and model. Their most plentiful interceptor is the P1‑Sun interceptors: ~$3,000 each.
Russian Shaheed clones can cost anywhere from $20,000-$50,000. The majority in use today that are built in Russia are $40-50,000 because they are bigger, more capable, and Russia has higher labor costs than Iran.
Interesting cite, thanks-
Disruptions to fuel supplies have triggered panic-buying in Russia’s Krasnodar region, the governor said, as Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure continued to hit fuel deliveries across several southern regions and Russian-held Crimea. On Tuesday, emergency services said they had finally extinguished an oil depot fire in the town of Ust-Labinsk in Krasnodar after a Ukrainian drone attack on Saturday. … The EU hopes to ban Russian soldiers from entering member states as part of further sanctions that also target banks, crypto firms and the Kremlin’s oil revenues, Jennifer Rankin writes from Brussels. The commission wants to maintain a price cap on Russian oil at $44 until January 2027; add 30 “shadow fleet” oil tankers to its blacklist, in addition to 632 already under restrictions; and extend sanctions against cryptocurrency firms, banks and oil traders helping Russia.
The latest sanctions proposals extend for the first time to Russian fish imports, with a potential ban on cod and restrictions on trade in other species. The EU also intends to ban the import of Russian metals, ores and car parts worth €60m (£52m) as part of continuing attempt to restrict economic ties.
Ukraine keeps fighting on and surprising the world. So far, the US aid cuts haven’t completely shut down Ukraine’s ability to fight.
Link ‘Highway of death’: the Ukrainian drone campaign menacing Russian logistics | Ukraine | The Guardian
Russia/Ukraine update:
russia Unveils New Zubr Air Defense System to Protect Its Oil Refineries From Ukrainian Drones:
Ukraine targets Russian industry, as Moscow bears down on eastern city:
Video shows British forces board Russian shadow tanker:
russia Replaces High-Power Explosives in Artillery Shells With Weaker TA-20 — How Much Firepower It Stands to Lose:
I note looking at that picture that all four machine guns are mounted on the same turret, and hence must all aim at the same azimuth (and possibly also the same altitude; it’s unclear from the picture whether the left and right sides can elevate independently).
Which means that it could be defeated by the simple expedient of drones approaching the target from two different directions.
As is the case of most anti-aircraft systems, one emplacement is expected to engage one target at a time. That’s why it appears that a standard battery is four of those gun platforms tied to one control van and detection radar set.
That just makes the system even more expensive, though. Certainly more expensive than the number of drones it’d take to overwhelm it.
But hey, if Russia wants to spend lots and lots of their increasingly-scarce money on weapons systems that don’t even do their job, I won’t complain.
Sorry wrong thread.
Systems for shooting down flying objects have been using multiple barrels forever.
In WWII, a lot of weapons used two or four barrels, such as the British pompom guns, or the 40-mm Bofors. The Iowa class battleships had 20 quad mount Bofors systems for a total of 80 barrels.
Fighters also had multiple machine guns that fired together. The P-51 had six 50 cal machine guns firing together.
Four barrels? Piker.
That works fine, when the flying objects you’re trying to down cost a million times as much as your ammunition. But any sensible drone-defense system needs to be pretty close to one kill per shot, and then needs to be able very quickly move on to the next target after that one shot, or you’re still losing.
How much are you calculating the cost of machine gun bullets?
And you expect the one shot from a gun will down any drone?
Video game targeting skills, apparently.
Not any actual familiarity with real life examples of unguided projectile-based air defense systems.
Remember, this is a breaking-news thread. Conjecture belongs in one of the other ukraine-invasion threads.
Moderating:
Russians can see the acrid black smoke over Moscow. It doesn’t matter if the state news propaganda only reports success inside Ukraine. Everyday Russians in Moscow know differently.