What drones are being used by the sides in the Russian-Ukrainian war

Many military experts have already called this war a drone war. Meduza has analysed which drones are in service on both sides.

We shall remind you that by the end of 2021 Ukraine received from Turkey several dozens of strike and reconnaissance drones Bayraktar, which have already proved to be excellent since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of our territory. Bayraktar has become the main strike drones of the Ukrainian army. Since spring the Turkish drones are mainly used as reconnaissance drones: thanks to the excellent opto-electronic system, which allows distinguishing targets at a distance of tens of kilometres, they can conduct reconnaissance and provide target designation for other means, without entering the pore

Both Ukraine and Russia use copter drones. At the current stage it is no longer possible to imagine war without small drones.
the main tasks of this type of drones are:

• dropping improvised ordnance (typically various types of grenades with a tail stabiliser printed on a printer);
• reconnaissance activities;
• artillery targeting;

The main type of Russian Army UAV is the Orlan

The backbone of the Russian army's unmanned aerial fleet before the war were reconnaissance and targeting drones Orlan-10 and Orlan-30. They were assigned to artillery units subordinate to army and area commands. Their distinctive feature is primarily cheapness (they used, among other things, foreign-made civilian cameras as an optronic system) and a long flight range that allows for long-range reconnaissance.

The AFU, in turn, takes advantage of NATO reconnaissance drones, which are constantly "hovering" near Ukrainian borders and over the Black Sea.

Both sides also use kamikaze drones.

The Russian Federation has the Kub and Lancet, while the AFU has the Switchblade-300, which is incapable of engaging protected targets.

The main drawbacks of these drones are short operating time, sensitivity to weather and a very small payload (this last circumstance prevents them from being used as fully fledged weapons).

Russia also uses Iranian strategic kamikaze drones Shahed, or as Russia itself calls them - Geran-1 and Geran-2.

Fighting these drones is difficult: they fly low, which rules out detection at long range; unlike missiles, drones do not de-mask themselves when launched, the air defense system needs to constantly monitor the airspace (i.e. turn on radar) and thus allow itself to be detected by the enemy. Ukraine's air defense is believed to have previously tried to operate from ambushes, turning on radar after receiving information about Russian missile launches or aircraft taking off.

Ukraine also uses mobile brigades, which are equipped with machine guns on vehicles, to use both anti-aircraft systems and mobile air defence systems against these types of UAVs.