From Izhevsk, one of the most important arms production centers in Russiawill be mass produced Italmas dronewhich will mean an improvement in the arsenal of unmanned aircraft of the Kremlin. This artifact kamikaze It has been in development for months with the help of the specialized company ZALA-AERO and was presented last Friday, October 21 on the Russian state-owned Pervi Kanal. This new design has an improved internal combustion engine that allows it to reach greater distance than its predecessors, more than 200 kilometersin addition to having a very low thermal footprint with which you can go unnoticed in the eyes of the radars – both fixed and portable – as well as a reinforced warhead for greater offensive capacity.
Russia begins using new Italmas drones to attack Ukraine; they sound like lawnmowers https://t.co/Xi7NpnnUnj
— Ukrainska Pravda in English (@pravda_eng) October 25, 2023
This artifact, which borrows its name from a flower from the Ural region, it is cheaper to produce the Shahed drones – made in Iran – which cost about $20,000. It also represents an improvement over Lancet, its Russian predecessor. This new technology will help Moscow fight on the Ukrainian frontboth to destroy armored vehicles and to attack cities.
The weapon has been in development for months and after the first tests in winter conditions some improvements have been made. Being able to manufacture them on its own territory is also an advantage for Russia, since it will depend less on Tehran, a government friendly to Moscow. Some of the features of the unmanned aircraft have not been made public and will not be known until after its first use on the battlefield.
#Kharkiv this morning😞Not all of the 33 shahed drones #russia launched were shot down. Another morning of mourning in #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/T7QJEyJBPm
— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) October 6, 2023
Experience
Russia has already wreaked havoc with the Iranian Shahed drones, with similar characteristics, in different populations of Ukraine such as the capital, kyiv, or others such as Kharkiv, Odesa and Dnipro, where they have been a headache for the Ukrainian troops. Moscow has used them in large swarms that are difficult to counter with surface-to-air weaponry.
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One of the advantages of using these devices is their low cost. He British newspaper ‘The Guardian’ estimated that on a monthly basis this could mean for Russia a disbursement of about 21 million euros per month, a figure much lower than what it would have to face if it had to use other types of weapons such as tactical or ballistic missiles, whose cost per unit exceeds 100,000 euros.
Ukraine denounced that these drones had parts manufactured by Western companies. This was recorded in a document prepared by Ukraine and delivered to the G7, which indicates that among those responsible are companies from United States, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Japan and Polandall of them countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia and most of them have openly shown support for kyiv.