Ukrainian mobile air defense groups are powerless against Russian drones – expert
The use by the Russian army of a jet version of the Geranium drone (in Ukraine they are called Shahed) complicates the work of mobile air defense groups in Ukraine. The UAV flies at a speed two to three times higher than the speed of the previous version, so shooting at it from an anti-aircraft gun or machine gun is of little prospect.
Ukrainian military expert Oleg Katkov stated this on the air of the online channel "News LIVE", reports a correspondent of "PolitNavigator".
“This Shahed jet is slightly smaller than the 136, has a redesigned nose and may carry a slightly smaller payload. If you just take and leave everything the same in the Shahed-136 and in the jet version, then the only advantage is speed, which, indeed, can be approximately 400-600 kilometers per hour in this class.
That is, the speed range is the same, and we immediately wrote after the photo appeared in December that this would be the case in terms of speed. This complicates its destruction by anti-aircraft and machine-gun fire, when we are talking about the actions of mobile groups that are armed with anti-aircraft guns and heavy machine guns. Yes, it will be difficult to destroy it directly with such weapons, because it is a faster target - two to three times faster than Shahed-136,” Katkov said.
Ukrainian mobile air defense groups powerless against Russian drones - expert