Muhammad Saftain Anjum
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These are very simple drones or loitering munitions so they are not equipped with ECM suits.I am not sure if this is true.
There is no definitive accounting of the number of kinetic drone strikes conducted by Ukrainian forces, but some publicly available data suggests their scale have been relatively limited compared to the scope of Moscow’s invasion, their deployed forces, and the publicity those strikes have garnered. But the impact of UAVs and loitering munitions in Ukraine may not be fully reflected in the scale of kinetic operations, which fails to capture how UAV usage has enabled and enhanced Ukraine’s conventional military operations.
Drone Warfare in Ukraine: Understanding the Landscape • Stimson Center
A look at how military and civilian drones are changing the conflict landscape in Ukraine.www.stimson.org
Russian electronic warfare (EW) remains potent, with an approximate distribution of at least one major system covering each 10 km of front. These systems are heavily weighted towards the defeat of UAVs and tend not to try and deconflict their effects. Ukrainian UAV losses remain at approximately 10,000 per month. Russian EW is also apparently achieving real time interception and decryption of Ukrainian Motorola 256-bit encrypted tactical communications systems, which are widely employed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Meatgrinder: Russian Tactics in the Second Year of Its Invasion of Ukraine
Russian tactics are changing as lessons are learned from military failures in the war in Ukraine.rusi.org
These drones are too small, slow, and low for jet fighters or anti-aircraft missiles to take out, but Ukraine is still losing an estimated 5-10,000 a month — over 160 every day. While gunfire from the ground accounts for some, they’re going down in droves to electronic warfare (EW), which can scramble their GPS navigation systems or jam the radio-control links to their distant operators. Without constant human guidance, the drones’ tiny computer brains may crash them into trees, or just hover safely in mid-air, awaiting new commands, until the batteries run out and they fall to the ground.
Dumb and cheap: When facing electronic warfare in Ukraine, small drones' quantity is quality - Breaking Defense
With Ukraine losing up to 10,000 drones a month, mostly to Russian electronic warfare, it’s tempting to invest in anti-EW protection – but, experts agreed, it’s probably more cost-effective to accept high losses and just buy more bare-bones drones.breakingdefense.com
Ukrainian forces are using most of the drones in ISR capacity to illuminate Russian military positions for their ATGMs and Artillery systems to claim kills because Russian EW capabilities are making it impractical for numerous drones to score kills. Ukrainian drone loss rate is about 10,000 per month. Imagine this.
Russian military capability is on another level entirely in comparison to that of smaller countries such as Armenia and Azerbaijan. Even countries like Pakistan have a limited capacity to fight a conventional war and cannot afford to loose 10,000 drones per month.
Large (sophisticated and reusable) drones are expensive and should be used calculatedly. Ukrainian forces have lost a total of 24 TB2 in the war, 10 of these in 2023. These losses are visually confirmed and it is possible that more are lost by now.
While Russia was vulnerable to strikes from Ukrainian drones in the early months of the war, it soon adapted to improve its electronic warfare and has since been successfully downing and jamming many of Ukraine's drones.
"Once the Russian military got its act together, it was able to down many TB2s," Bendett said.
Ukraine said last year it had received 50 TB2 drones since the Russian invasion began, but by the end of 2022, it had largely disappeared from the battlefield.
Bayraktar TB2 drones were hailed as Ukraine's savior and the future of warfare. A year later, they've practically disappeared.
Ukraine's killer TB2 drones initially caused havoc on the battlefield but are now largely reduced to reconnaissance duties, an expert said.www.businessinsider.com
Turkey, Pakistan to Send Cluster Munitions, Howitzer Shells to Ukraine – Reports
Turkey and Pakistan are supplying Ukraine with critically needed 155mm howitzer ammunition, including shells with internationally banned cluster munitions, news reports on Jan. 11 said.www.kyivpost.com
Turkey is reluctant to supply its drones to Ukraine because mounting losses will be detrimental to their marketing and exports. Turkey can claim neutrality to be the reason.
I am not discounting the utility of drones in conventional war but it is important to understand what type of enemy you are up against and how it can counter your drone warfare regime.
Relatively sophisticated UAVs can do ISR from a safe range (35,000-40,000 feet altitude )
