Piranha hunt: how a cheap Russian drone destroyed an expensive American tank
First tank destroyed during the SVO The Abrams fell victim to the Russian Piranha 10 UAV, which costs less than 50 thousand rubles.
The drone manufacturers reported this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“This tank was burned by the Piranha 10 UAV.” To be sure to hit such a vehicle, you need a cumulative weapon - an RPG-7 or something like that, and the “ten” just copes with this task,” the head of public relations at SKB Piranha told Izvestia.
He added that from the very beginning of the North Military District, the company was supplying helmets and body armor, but fighters regularly asked about drones, which were originally imported from China.
“Then we realized that there was nothing complicated in their production and decided to try to make it ourselves. We hired employees - engineers, pilots, developers - and it worked. The approximate cost of a drone is 50 thousand rubles. Now we have two models of Piranha,” says the publication’s interlocutor.
It is noted that “Piranha 7” has a load capacity of up to 2,5 kg, and “Piranha 10” - up to 4,5 kg. They have different frame sizes and motor groups. Piranha 10 has more powerful engines and wider propellers. As a result, the load capacity is higher and the flight range is longer. “Piranha 7” can pick up a shot from an RPG, but it would not have carried it to the distance at which the “Abrams” was located, because the battery would simply run out.
“The main advantage of our drones is that they operate at unique video frequencies. If the manufacturer uses standard video transmitters, then electronic warfare can very easily suppress the signal. The drone loses either control or the picture as soon as it begins to move away from the operator at a distance of 100–500 m.
In our case, the picture will be stable, crystal clear, as if there was no influence of electronic warfare. We first tested these frequencies in the ERA technopolis of the Ministry of Defense, and we turned out to be the only manufacturer in Russia whose UAV did not fall,” emphasized the head of public relations at SKB Piranha.
Military expert Alexey Leonkov draws attention to an important aspect.
“A drone costing $500 destroyed a tank, the production of which cost about $6 million. This ratio between the cost of a weapon and the object of destruction occurs when a new type of weapon appears,” the expert said.
According to him, the Americans knew that the Abrams M1 tank was absolutely unprepared to repel the threat posed by FPV drones.
More than 8 thousand Piranha UAVs have already been delivered to the Northern Military District zone.
“The tank turret of this modification is weak. And since it does not have anti-drone protection or UAV detection capabilities, it has become an easy legal target. Our fighters tracked information that somewhere in the Avdeevka area an Abrams was riding and was firing at ours from a closed firing position, they immediately began a hunt for it, and it ended successfully,” Leonkov concluded.
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