This is a separate type of heavy helicopter UAV with electric motors and a powerful battery to increase range.
The former general director of the Russian state corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, admitted that Ukraine has increased the range and level of stealth of its Baba Yaga UAVs.
“We will destroy them later, when we study their habits, routes and tactics. The main thing is not to shoot down the drones, but to kill their operators by finding their hiding place,” Rogozin added in a note on Telegram.
According to him, the occupiers detect the UAVs using night vision cameras located at the edge of their positions, instead of listening for the approach of the drones.
“The drones were inaudible, but clearly visible through thermal imagers at a distance of several kilometers,” Rogozin explained.
He previously called Baba Yaga drones “extremely dangerous” to Russian troops when combined with first-person view (FPV) drones. As Rogozin said, the occupiers in southern Ukraine are using a new defensive strategy to combat “quiet” updated versions of Ukrainian high-power attack drones.
As Samuel Bendett of the US think tank CNA told Newsweek, Russia is trying to create its own analogue of Baba Yaga.
“Ukrainians are experts in flying these UAVs,” he emphasized.
Rogozin also claims: “This is no longer a conversion of an agricultural drone into a combat one, but a separate type of heavy helicopter UAV with electric motors and a powerful battery to increase range.”
More than two years of full-scale war in Ukraine have stimulated rapid and innovative development of unmanned aerial vehicles. Drones are widely used on the battlefield. Many are designed for targeting, gathering intelligence, or directing artillery strikes.
Digital Transformation Minister Mikhail Fedorov told the publication in December that “they sometimes work even more efficiently than artillery.” Moscow and Kyiv are believed to burn hundreds of drones every day.
Ukrainian drones in the war
As UNIAN reported, Ukraine has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in long-range drones capable of searching for and hitting distant targets. The best of the new models has a power reserve of 3000 km and is capable of reaching Siberia.
Military expert Alexander Musienko noted that the Ukrainian armed forces disorient enemy air defenses with aerial bullets, allowing attack drones to successfully reach the target and hit it.
It is expected that Ukraine will be able to produce about 2 million drones this year.
