Russian blunder: Soldiers shoot down their own reconnaissance drone
Russian soldiers proudly presented a downed Ukrainian drone. It turned out that it was actually Russian, leading to a very negative reaction and calls from a Russian military blogger for corrective actions. Here's what the Russians shot down.
Drones of various types have become a daily occurrence in the war in Ukraine. FPV drones and bombarding drones known as "Baba Yaga" particularly frighten people. Reconnaissance drones directing artillery fire on detected targets are also a significant concern.
This applies to both Russians and Ukrainians, who have insufficient means to combat them and try to counter drones, for example, by ramming them with another drone. This method is quite effective, but the biggest problem remains identifying whether a given drone belongs to their own side or the enemy's.
This requires very good coordination between drone operators and ground units equipped with, for example, portable drone detectors with a range of about 0.6 to 1.2 miles. In this aspect, Ukrainians seem to be doing much better, as they less frequently accidentally destroy their own drones compared to the Russians.
A drone can be visually recognized from less than 500 feet if its shape differs from enemy machines. A military blogger proposes a solution to the Russian identification problem: printing photos of Russian drones on sheets of paper and distributing them to soldiers so that they do not shoot down such objects. This includes drones like the Z-16 (ZALA 421-16), Orlan-10/Orlan-30, Lotka-3/Lotka-7, or SuperCam S350/Skat-350.
ZALA drones — the eyes of Russian artillery
The Z-16, or ZALA 421-16 drone, is a reconnaissance structure produced by Zala Aero Group, part of the Kalashnikov concern. According to the Russian manufacturer, it resembles a composite flying wing and is equipped with a pusher propeller powered by a combustion engine or an electric engine charged by a hybrid system in newer versions.
The drone is characterized by 12 hours of operational autonomy and the ability to fly up to 2.2 miles at altitudes. Its straight-line flight range is 621 miles, but radio communication is theoretically possible up to 93 miles. Navigation is handled by an inertial and satellite navigation module (GLONASS), and takeoff and landing are carried out using a pneumatic catapult and parachute. These capabilities are much poorer compared to, for example, the Polish FlyEye, which can be launched "by hand."
The Russian drone can carry up to 8 pounds of payload in the form of one of many observation heads equipped with a daytime and thermal imaging camera. These vary significantly from each other; for instance, the daytime camera is theoretically supposed to offer up to 60x zoom, while on the front line, there are often 20x or lower zoom models. It is a very dangerous drone and relatively rare, so any loss of it by the Russians is a great help to the Ukrainians.
