(bright music) - [Narrator] Some 600
miles east of Moscow, a new facility in the town of Yelabuga is getting ready to ramp up
Russia's production of drones. The White House says the plants will manufacture Iranian drones with operations starting
as soon as early 2024. (drone buzzing) Russia's invasion of Ukraine showed how inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs were effective on the battlefield for
reconnaissance and for attacks. Aviation experts say, unlike Ukraine, Russia's use of unmann
ed
systems got off to a slow start. Here's how Moscow is
catching up in the drone race by building up arsenals of
low-cost explosive drones. (airplane jet revving) Early in the war, Russia mostly relied on
conventional military UAVs. Reconnaissance drones like
this orlan have been effective as spotting targets and
calling in artillery fire. But these systems are
relatively expensive, costing around $100,000 a unit, and military experts with CNA and American Defense Research Organization believe
Russian forces had a
limited number of these UAVs with plans to significantly
ramp up production in 2023. (air whooshing) Meanwhile, Ukrainian
troops started using cheap, modified commercial
drones for surveillance and to destroy valuable
Russian equipment early on. As the invasion turned
into a war of attrition, Moscow realized its need for
low-cost explosive drones. In mid 2022, Moscow started
importing Iranian shahed drones to targets Ukrainian infrastructure. CNA expert, Samuel Bendett,
esti
mated the price tag for the shaheds to be under $50,000 each, which makes it cost-effective
for Russia to use. And with this new plant,
Russia will be able to produce some 6,000 Iranian
design drones on its territory in the coming years,
according to officials from a country aligned with the US. (tense music) But shahed can only navigate
to pre-programmed targets. (drone thudding) So in response to Ukraine's
counter offensive, Russia has been increasingly using domestically-produced lancet drone
s, which are flown by pilots in real time. (worker speaking in Russian) - [Narrator] In July,
Russian state media reported from what it said was a former
shopping mall that was turned into a plans to assemble lancets. Russia's defense ministry
has increasingly reported on the small UAVs damaging
Ukrainian weapons, including arms supplied by the West. (Vladimir Putin speaking in Russian) - [Narrator] In August,
Vladimir Putin asked for the production of lancets to increase. It's not clear how man
y of
these drones Russia has. Last October, Russian pro-war bloggers put
the number at 1,500 units. (calm music) Kiev has acknowledged the challenges posed by Russian drones such
as lancets and orlans to its forces on the battlefield. The Ukrainian government
says the vehicles rely on foreign made parts, some
imported from the West. The chief of staff to the
Ukrainian presidents call for more sanctions on
Russian drone producers and stricter controls
over components' exports. Military experts ag
ree that sourcing components is a major issue for the Russian drone industry. But if Russia still
manages to quickly ramp up production of low-cost drones, this could spell trouble
for Ukrainian forces. (air whooshing) (calm music)
Comments
Russia historically is having lots of problems in the beginning of the conflicts, but quickly adapts and decisively wins by the end of the conflict.
Iran and Russia are two friendly countries and great neighbors🇮🇷🇷🇺🇮🇷🇷🇺🇮🇷🇷🇺🇮🇷🇷🇺✌️✌️✌️
The Russian must’ve taken the semiconductors from washing machines to make these drones….😂 Right, Ursula Von de Crazy??
Lancet is the real MVP of this war with more than 500 visually confirmed kills, it has far surpassed its western rival Switchblade which has only 3d rendered animation kills. lol
These drones are really affordable and are a good bang for the buck. They have been performing quite well, taking out loads of Leopard tanks already.
What makes the Russian weapons superior is that they are simple. They are effective and actually advanced. The propeller on the lancet keeps it cooler so radar doesn’t hardly detect.
WSJ is about 4 months behind in this simplistic report of a simple situation. Imagine when topics are complex! BTW, the Iranian-type drones should have price tags of about $15,000 - $20,000, and not what WSJ reports. Russian Lancet drones are in their 3rd or 4th generation.
Shahed-136 drones cost $20,000/piece... not $50,000
Ukraine has much more drones….but they were all used up by Ghosts of Kiev!! 😂😂😂
This is US proxy war and already lost this war like Vietnam,Afghanistan .Iraq and Somalia
According to the BBC, the Russian Army soldiers have been using shovels, not drones, about a month into the war.
America has cheap drones too, coming in at a measly $2 million.
What happened to the shovels and washing machine chips narr ati ve?
When Russia has a battlefield problem they solve with tech innovation, when Ukraine has a battlefield problem they call for more sanctions.
Adaptation as quickly as possible is the number one most important strategy for survival.
Following the US and British ideas, what if those Drones Russia weaponized with Deplited Uranium or Cluster munitions?
There is a new Lancet-like drone called Scalpel that is 1/4 the price of Lancet with 50K range but just as effective.
Level of subtle propaganda messages laced in these seemingly balanced report is mind blowing. First of all Russia is not "catching up" to the use of drone currently, they are ahead of West sponsored Ukraine. It is weasle behavior from you trying to take credit for Russia's progress in manufacture of drones at scale, by mention they did so with Western parts or technology. They clearly dont need you, even your switchblade drones were an abject failure.
Victory for 🇷🇺
Nothing like sending a 75k suicide drone to take out a Leopard 2A6 tank worth $8,6m.