The Combined Forces Command press service reported that today, May 4, 2023, Ukraine’s military shot down an unknown russia’s drone, which could probably be used for reconnaissance. This can be indicated by a kind of a “whatnot” on board for civilian cameras.
At the same time, the structure of the UAV itself looks as simple as possible: there is no body cladding, the structure is made of wood and plastic, the power plant consists of two low-power engines (probably similar to hang gliders). And so it turns out that in this episode, the occupiers actually made a "whatnot" that acts as a frame for cameras and engines.
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Defense Express mentions that in the last few days, claims have been spreading in Ukrainian social networks that russian military has begun to actively use such kind of drones, probably to distract Ukraine’s air defense. It may indicate that russians may have a "standardized" project for the mass production of such UAVs in field conditions.
It is not yet known how such drones are controlled, and what functionality they can actually perform. Perhaps, in some time, experts will be able to give an answer to this question. But here it is worth recalling such a retrospective.
Before russia’s full-scale invasion, it was believed that the occupiers would try to copy the "Karabakh" tactics, converting the An-2 into drones for "spamming" Ukraine’s air defense. But in the spring of 2022, it turned out that russians were using a much more primitive aircraft for similar tasks: the E95M "penny drone" with a pulsating gasoline jet engine and a flight duration of up to 30 minutes, which can simulate the flight of a cruise missile. The cost of E95M at pre-war prices was only 50 thousand dollars.
Obviously, a "step further" was done to create an even more simplified "penny drone", which should also "spam" the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
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