That was stated by the Deputy Chief of the Main Operations Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksiy Hromov at a briefing on Thursday, Ukrinform reports.
"Last night, the forces and means of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed 9 out of 12 kamikaze drones. In total, since the beginning of the enemy's use of kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicles of Shahed-136 type, they deployed 86 units, of which 60% were destroyed," Hromov said.
Read more: Iran's Shahed-136 Kamikaze Drone: How to Identify, Look And Sound From the Air (Video)
According to him, more than half of the total number – 46 kamikaze drones – were used over the past week only, with 24 of them successfully destroyed before they reached the target. The UAVs were used both against military targets and civilian infrastructure. Another notable detail is that russians in fact used more one-way drones than cruise missiles over this period: 20 missiles against 46 drones. It should be noted that cruise missile attacks were one of the few ways to launch strikes into Ukraine's rear without putting aircraft at risk.
Defense Express also notes that the information about Shahed-136 drone is quite limited and based on data from Iran itself. Therefore, the drone specs should be taken into account with a certain skepticism.
In particular, the real flight range of up to 2.5 thousand km is questionable, taking into account drone’s weight of about 200 kg and a wingspan of 2.5 meters and a 50-horsepower motor. By the way, the MD 550 engine itself is sold even on AliExpress, and given the sub-sanctions of Iran, most likely, all other components of the drone are also civilian.
As for the Shahed-136's guidance means, most likely, it is equipped with only civilian-class satellite navigation and can only strike stationary objects. There is no information about the power of the warhead, but it can hardly be more than 25% of the weight, given the total weight of the drone of 200 kg.
At the same time, the use of this drone filmed by Iran cannot serve as a credible sourse because of possible "additional pyrotechnic effects". Iranian propaganda has been repeatedly caught using them.
More details about the general capabilities and real combat value of Shahed-136 will be available after receiving additional information.
Defense Express reminds that before this event there had been information that russia ordered drones of a completely different class, allegedly Shahed 129, Mohajer-6 or Shahed 171.
Read more: How to Counter Iranian Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 Kamikaze Drones, Used by russia to Strike Ukrainian Cities
