Thread by @sambendett

1/ QUICK TAKE - Russians are worried that Ukrainian military is targeting their fixed-wing ISR drones: "This is an extremely alarming development. While people do not directly die from such actions, the consequences may be more serious than from the delivery of dozens of Abrams (tanks)."

2/ "Many units/actions depend on such ISR drones (Zala, Supercam, Orlan). Destroying our "eyes" in the sky will set us back a generation, forcing us to fight in 2D while the enemy continues to wage war in 3D. FPV drones are cheap, but big ISR UAVs are not."

3/ "If previously Ukrainians were waiting for supplies of scarce Western missiles for air defense, now they can also use interceptor drones with great effect. FPVs can already fly at speeds of up to 500 km/hour. All our slow-flying drones, including Geran (loitering munition) are at risk."

4/ "In addition, the Ukrainians plan to shoot down our attack helicopters that come close to the front line. Fortunately, there were no such cases, but the enemy is working on this. Another advantage of interceptor drones is their mobility and stealth."

5/ "Their use does not require multi-ton vehicles, which in modern conditions cannot be hidden. Two people on motorcycles is already an air defense weapon that is extremely difficult to detect. But the most dangerous thing here is that the Ukrainians..."

6/ "...were able to establish a system for detecting and destroying our fixed-wing drones. Building such a system is the key to successful (interceptor drone) application. Without it, an FPV drone will not find a target at an altitude of several thousand meters."

7/ We urgently need to pay attention to this. There is nothing to protect our fixed-wing UAVs in the sky, so the only answer is to destroy the enemy’s fixed-wing drones in exactly the same way. Whoever is the first to clear the sky of the enemy's ISR UAVs will get amazing benefits (in combat)."

8/ For reference, this is what Russians are worried about.

https://x.com/sambendett/status/1800893228927094820

9/ Some background to point 3/ about drones reaching 500km/h - that may have been an exaggeration by the Russian commentator - the fastest FPV-type drone reached around 400km/h and it was not weighted down by a munition/mortar.