UAVs in Russian Armed Forces: News

With wings attached and 9M120 Ataka & 9M113(M) Konkurs missile launch tubes on the KamAZ trailer.

The missile tube in front is new.

The missile tubes in front of the UAV are not pure cylinders... they appear to get wider near one end like the Konkurs did...
From what I remember the rear of Konkurs was wider to make room for the wire guidance spool that allowed it to reach targets at 4-4.5km range.

I rather doubt this missile is wire guided.

Perhaps we are looking at a new model of Kristantema with a modifed nose or warhead?

The launch tubes for Shturm, Ataka, and Krisantema, as well as Kornet are all straight cylinders... is this a new weapon?

Or a new version of an existing type?

speed...
ataka ,missiles = 400 m/s
9M113 Konkurs = 170 m/s

This is horribly slow , to hit anything..
in comparison..

Predator hellfire missile speed. = Mach 1.3

So literary the Predator missiles are up to 10x times the speed of the crap Russia drones use.
if your missiles are very slow.. it will give plenty of time for terrorist to do evasive maneuvers and hide..
if missiles are fast. terrorist will not have enough time to react. and hide.

The speed of sound at sea level is 320m/s, so this 10 times faster US missile moves at 416m/s.

Also Ataka moves at 450m/s, while the larger slower Krisantema moves at 420m/s but it has a larger warhead... and it has a slightly longer range... which is very important because all the speeds listed above are average speeds... which obviously depends on distance covered divided by flight time... so much longer range can make a faster missile seem slower.

Ironically the slowest operational missiles are Javelin and Spike... gonna bitch about them are we?

Holy S*** if this post doesn't get you ban for laughably delusional ignorance, I don't know what will.

No rules about going off half cocked... or being totally wrong.... which is just as well... I am not always right myself.

I'm really not fan of drones. They are not cheap at all and the cheapest trainer aircraft could be transformed in light reco anf attack to make their job.

They are rather small and hard to spot, yet can operate above the range of small arms fire, yet deliver weapons on target when needed.

Ataka is command guided so launching from 5km altitude you could probably hit targets 10km away... the target would have no idea it is under attack... especially as it moves at supersonic speed so the first sound the target will hear is the warhead exploding.

the same guidance is used with Pantsir and TOR missiles so it can be very accurate out to decent distances.

Don't think of these things as replacements for Su-25s and Mi-28/Ka-52s... these are a light recon tool that the local force commander can launch to see what is ahead or in an area he wants to monitor or may have to move into.

The point of these things is that they are disposable, so who cares if one gets shot down... but it does mean troops moving into new areas can have a good look there before setting boots there and any obvious target spotted can be dealt with immediately.

With Krisantema then you have a supersonic missile with a range of 6km+ that can penetrate 1.2 metres of steel plate, so even if it detects a tank it can start to take them on. Of course to soften the enemy if any air defence forces are detected they would likely take first priority to lessen their impact on follow up assets like Su-25s and Mils and Kamovs... but if the local commanders jeep is spotted then obviously that will be target number one... if a patriot battery is there or an MLRS battery then it would just as likely keep looking quietly as the target location information is passed up to HQ for an artillery barrage of 300mm unguided rockets from a nearby Smerch battery...

Russia proved itself that it can easily jam small drones in Syria and the best that US has. Same with Israel intercepting one with a chopper ...

So they can't use them to invade the US or Israel... there are still plenty of situations where they can be useful...

The bigger ones are easy targets for anti air systems. A yak 152 with reduced RCS and some missiles could do a far better job than those things. Pilots don't need an expensive training and the plane itself is cheap to operate.

Most will be operating at standoff distances and heights where ground fire should not be an issue... with a Yak-152, if you took that 90kg pilot and the 200kg ejection seat out you could put another 300 odd Kgs of equipment or fuel or weapons in there... leave the Yak-152 for training pilots and use the UCAVs for what they are good at.

The human factor can't be replaced in aviation.

It isn't... there will be a guy with the forces this drone is operating with monitoring the data it collects and populating maps with the location of the enemy forces... if the drone comes under fire or a particularly juicy target appears then they might open fire immediately, but half the time it will not fire and will bring its missiles back home for use another day. Video feed of targets can be used locally and sent to HQ for processing and passing on information or selecting targets to be engaged.

BTW Good explanation PapaDragon.... at one point we had whining because there were no Russia UCAVs... well now we see one and it is not well enough armed... which is hugely ironic of course

Recently a video was shown with objects like aircraft and missiles being hung in front of all manner of radars and IR sensors... the purpose of this was to determine the radar and IR signature of various enemy assets and equipment... that way they can be automatically identified by their radar or IR signature.

The same will be performed with optical signatures, so that video footage can be processed by software to detect and identify equipment and systems, which can be used with data on where the drone was when it took the video as well as laser ranging of objects in view the angle and distance is used to plot the targets on maps in real time that can be updated in frontline forces battle management systems... you are sitting in your Armata tank and you know you have orders to move forward over a low hill... hours before your operation one of these drones is sent and as it flys around targets start popping up on your map showing you the locations of visible enemy positions... pretty damn useful... especially if you can click onto the symbol on your screen and it brings up a still image of the target taken from the video from the drone...

Wont be perfect... targets move and some things wont be spotted every time... but it does build a picture... hell if you spot a threatening target the drone could remain in the air and local artillery could start firing laser homing missiles like the Krasnopol, or perhaps Smelchak if it is particularly hard... the drone can light up the target and boom... before ground forces even move.

My opinion... as long as it has good optics for stand off operations up high... having supersonic command guided ATGMs is ideal... a fraction of the cost of laser homing, yet precise and not range and speed limited like wire guided.

Being launched from 4-5km up would mean average speed would likely be boosted to the 500-550m/s range and horizontal range would also be improved.

With 5km altitude you are above small arms fire range and MANPADS should not be a huge issue, plus at that altitude they will never hear you or see you... just ideal to watch and find enemy targets...