(DEFENCE SECURITY ASIA) — Russia has been reported to have painted its Iran-supplied Shahed-136 kamikaze drones black for use in nighttime attacks on Ukrainian cities.
The decision to coat these deadly drones in black is aimed at further complicating the Ukrainian military’s efforts to visually detect their presence in the airspace during the night.
“By painting them black, it significantly hampers the visual efforts to detect these drones in the night sky,” the statement read.
According to Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, besides the new paint job, Russia has also made several improvements to the Shahed drones to enhance their bombing mission capabilities in Ukraine.
These enhancements include the use of composite materials like carbon on the drones.
“Carbon is known to absorb radar signals, making it more difficult for our air defense radar systems to detect the Shahed, while the black color is intended to obscure our personnel’s vision,” he explained.
This makes it challenging for our armed personnel to shoot down these Shahed drones.
Despite these difficulties, Ihnat claimed that Ukrainian forces successfully shot down 71 out of 75 Shahed kamikaze drones that targeted the capital city, Kiev, last night.
Kiev has described the drone attack as the “largest” since the armed conflict between the two neighboring countries began in February last year.
Russia reportedly began using the Shahed kamikaze drones supplied by Iran in September last year to target Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
In addition to receiving thousands of Shahed drones directly from Iran, Russia is also reported to have started producing these drones at its own facilities located in the city of Yelabuga, Tatarstan, south of Moscow.
Iran is said to have provided technical assistance to Russia for the construction of the Shahed drone manufacturing facility in Yelabuga.
Russia has deployed Iranian kamikaze drones such as the Shahed-131, Shahed-136, and Mohajer to attack various targets in Ukraine, including buildings, public infrastructure such as power plants, oil storage centers, and more.
U.S. officials have stated that the capabilities of various Iranian-made drones have significantly improved since 2014, starting from their use by Tehran-supported Houthi militants in Yemen for attacks on Saudi Aramco’s oil and gas facilities, to drone attacks on commercial ships navigating through the Persian Gulf waters.
Although these Iranian-made kamikaze drones have low accuracy, they have been successful in “intimidating” both the Ukrainian military and civilians from a psychological standpoint.
The Iranian drones have also been said to compensate for the shortage of weapons and ammunition experienced by the Russian military due to the high-intensity conflict that has persisted for more than a year.
Dubbed “mopeds” or “scooters” due to their loud noise, the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing (HESA)-developed Shahed-136 drones have a flight range of between 1,000km to 2,200km.
The nose of these kamikaze drones is equipped with 50kg of explosives. The Shahed-136 has a total length of 3.5 meters, weighs 200kg, and its China-made engine allows it to fly at speeds of up to 185km per hour. — DSA