The Russian National Guard announced last weekend that its special forces, with the support of counterintelligence, had detected an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) disguised as an eagle operating in the Donetsk region.
A Ukrainian UAV disguised as an eagle was neutralized by Russia on November 24. Photo: Russian National Guard
"The Ukrainian military hoped that Russian air defenses would not detect the UAV if it was disguised as a common object in the sky. However, Russian air defenses were not fooled," military website Topwar commented.
Disguising UAVs to look like birds is not a new tactic, having been used by Somali intelligence in 2016, but this is the first time information about this tactic has appeared in Ukraine.
In 2019, Russia also announced a project to develop an owl-shaped UAV that can designate targets for artillery and fighter jets with lasers. Russian media also reported at the time that the country was developing another falcon-shaped UAV, but the progress of the projects is currently unclear.
A Russian owl-shaped UAV in a photo taken in June 2019. Photo: TASS
UAVs, especially the first-person view (FPV) variety, are one of the main weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine. According to Samuel Bendett, an expert at the US-based Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), FPV UAVs cost a few hundred dollars, but can take on some of the roles of snipers, artillery, and missiles, and are especially effective in destroying tanks and armored vehicles that cost thousands of times more.
Pham Giang (According to RIA Novosti, Topwar )
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