Russia is improving the "Shahed" attack drones it uses for its attacks on Ukraine, a senior representative of the Ukrainian Air Force (AVF) said, but at the same time assured that Kiev continues to successfully neutralize these unmanned aerial vehicles, Ukrinform reported, BTA reported.
Yuri Ikhnat, head of the Air Force's public relations department, specifically noted in an interview with the "Ukrainska Pravda" newspaper that the antennas of the Russian drones contain many new components.
"The Shaheds are evolving. At first, they were simply painted black. Then they were equipped with protection against electronic warfare (EW) systems – now more stations are needed to (jam the signal of one) "Shahed". Its antenna already contains many components that protect against EW", Ihnat said.
At the same time, he noted that EW "remains an effective method - the drone will not hit the target and we hope it will crash somewhere in the field. EW can suppress both missiles and drones."
Ukraine has begun developing interceptor drones to shoot down Shaheds, Ihnat also said. "This is a recent development, but there have already been some successful interceptions of Shaheds by what we call anti-aircraft drones", Ihnat noted, predicting an increase in the use of these devices.
The Ukrainian Air Force representative indicated that, according to unspecified open sources, the cost of one "Shahed" drone is about $200,000.
"Even if they managed to somehow reduce the production costs, it is still very expensive. That is why Russia also uses decoy drones that imitate Shaheds," Ihnat noted. He explained that these decoys resemble real strike drones, "but when they get close, (Ukrainian) forces can distinguish them by sound or visual" and then "use the appropriate weapon against each target".
Ukraine needs about 200 modern military aircraft to effectively counter air and ground threats from Russia, Ukrinform notes.