Killer drones vie for supremacy over Ukraine

They are precise, small in size, able to engage a target in relatively large numbers like a swarm of wasps and above all, they’re cheap.

In Russia’s attack on Ukraine, drones have cemented their reputation as a potent, hard-to-stop and cost-effective weapon to seek out and destroy targets while simultaneously spreading the kind of terror that can fray the resolve of soldiers and civilians alike.

They’re also quickly surpassing missiles as the remote weapon of choice because they can be put into any combat theatre in greater numbers much more cheaply.

Russia’s unleashing of successive waves of the Iranian-made Shahed drones over Ukraine has multiple aims — take out key targets, crush morale and ultimately drain the enemy's war chest and weapons trying to defend against them as the conflict evolves into a longer war of attrition.

HOW DO THEY WORK?

The Shahed drones that Russia has rebranded as Geran-2 are packed with explosives and are preprogrammed to loiter overhead until they nosedive into a target — reminiscent of Japan's World War II-era kamikaze pilots who would fly their explosive-laden aircraft into US warships and aircraft carriers during the war in the Pacific.

According to the Ukrainian online publication Defence Express citing Iranian data, the delta-wing Shahed is 3½ metres (11½ feet) long, 2.5½ metres (about eight feet) wide and weighs approximately 200 kilogrammes (440 pounds). It's powered by a 50-horsepower engine with a top speed of 185 kph (114 mph) and has a maximum range of 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles).

The upside with the new technology is obvious — trained personnel don't need be sacrificed nor does a huge amount of money have to be spent on building sophisticated aircraft to reach a target.

In Monday's attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the city's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said 28 drones made up the successive attack waves. The ability to deploy the small aircraft in such large numbers at any one time may overwhelm defences — particularly in civilian areas.

But according to Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at Ukraine's National Institute for Strategic Studies, the Shahed only carries a 40-kilogram (88-pound) explosive charge, which pales in comparison to the explosive force that a conventional missile's 480-kilogramme (1,050-pound) warhead can deliver at a much longer range.

“It is difficult to hit serious targets with such drones,” Bielieskov said.

SMALL PUNCH BUT LOW COST

At a mere $20,000 apiece, the Shahed is only a tiny fraction of the cost of a more conventional, full-size missile. For example, Russia's Kalibr cruise missiles that have seen widespread use in the nearly eight months of war cost the Russian military about $1 million each.

At such a low cost, the Shahed can be deployed in massive numbers to saturate a target, whether it's a fuel depot or infrastructure and utilities like power or water stations.

Despite its small size, the Shahed's explosive charge appears powerful enough to do the job. In Monday's attacks, one drone struck an operations centre, while another slammed into a five-story residential building, ripping a large hole in it and collapsing at least three apartments on top of each other, resulting in the deaths of three people.

Bielieskov from Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies said the Russian military is opting to use Shaheds on civilian targets instead of the battlefield because Ukrainian forces have "learned how to fight them effectively,” managing to intercept a little more than half of them.