Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russia is lagging far behind Ukraine in the production and use of drones, according to a commander of the Chechen Akhmat unit. He provides a lengthy critique of Russian efforts and an explanation of how Ukrainian drone tactics are impacting Russia's attempts to advance. ⬇️

2/ The man, who uses the callsign 'Hades', says that it's a huge mistake to underestimate Ukraine, and cites his experiences of the faltering Russian campaign in the Sumy region on the border of north-eastern Ukraine.

3/ "Here the enemy began to use the same tactics of using UAVs. Yes, we have an advantage in missiles, and they also have an advantage in missiles. But while we hit precisely somewhere, they rain down anywhere they want.

4/ "HIMARS do not spare anything, even barrel artillery, they flew into the dugouts, even in the plantations...

With missiles, maybe we have the advantage. Aviation, we have the advantage with that, we have the advantage with long-range strike drones.

5/ "But we have no advantage in [short-range drones], including fibre optic.

Although we were the first to use them, we developed them, the enemy caught up with us very quickly and even overtook us in terms of numbers. Indeed, the quantity is insane.

6/ "To give you an example, just one of my positions took 87 hits, if I'm not mistaken. [All] drones. Of those, about 30 were fibre optic."

'Hades' cites the millions of drones being produced all over Ukraine, a figure which Russia does not come close to equalling.

7/ "Yes, they use them on a huge scale, a huge scale, because they have erected a cult. It is really a cult of money, a cult. Any [TV] programme, any film, any interview, frame, QR code, is focused on drones. The Armed Forces assemble them, civilians assemble them.

8/ "Even children in ordinary clubs collect drones, they leave links to buy them, they collect spare parts. And it works in terms of the fact that their scale is quite different from ours.

9/ "The second point is the efficiency of drone use. We use them in a simple way with ground control stations and directional antennas. The enemy has gone much further.

10/ "In addition to a fairly unique ground control station with the ability to switch video frequencies, up to four, ... they use a system of aerial repeaters, they have a long system. There's an aerial repeater in the sky that provides a signal.

11/ "That is, it flies and switches between repeaters. If one drops out in its place, another one immediately replaces it. Hence the flight range, preservation of the picture and the impossibility of jamming it normally with electronic warfare.

12/ "How to counter this? Only by means of air defence radar stations to shoot down these aerial repeaters, including the mothership. It acts both as a carrier and as a repeater. Hence the strikes on the far rear...

13/ "We must fight this, we must develop [our response]. We have not been very successful in this yet, we are only just beginning to develop it, to fight in our own ways.

14/ "Individual units, such as the Nomads [unit], like the 45th Special Forces Brigade, we have at least begun to use radar stations to shoot down the enemy's wings. So there's a few other units out there. The rest are still lagging behind.

15/ "I mean, [the lack of] this unified network system, it's hindering us a lot...

The Glukhovsky district [in the Kursk region] is a typical rehearsal of battlefield isolation.

16/ "The enemy is rehearsing, he realises that with the help of drones he can really isolate the battlefield. Therefore, this must be countered. Even yesterday it was necessary to fight it, which is what we are trying to do now.

17/ "UAVs are the future of war. This is really the future. The god of war, artillery, it will not be able to completely replace. And this depends on the scale.

18/ "You can rain shells chaotically, two or three will hit, or you can pour 150 drones at one forest position, and the effect will be much better. The position will be a dead zone.

Plus they have a very tight interaction going on between UAV units and assault units.

19/ "So any attacking unit can request assistance. And if you've even observed a fight where there's an attacking unit, it requests help, a drone flies up, it appears from behind him, strikes, and he goes to clean up.

https://x.com/DefenceU/status/1964696155700527536

20/ "So it's all working in perfect synergy there.

So there are unmanned attack drones, you can call them that, even individual units, they practice with ground drones and even use them. For us, this is also still terra incognita, we are just beginning to develop it.

21/ "They are even already testing [robot] dogs, at least at night, albeit ridiculously so far. Before in 2018 [people posted] ridiculous emojis when [the rebels] attacked the Hmeimim base in Syria [with drones]. Six years later, we have what we have.

22/ "So it is necessary to develop in this direction in terms of countering drones and UAVs and their development. This should have been done yesterday. Now we have to run to stay in place. We have to run, or rather stand still. We have to run, now that we are lagging behind.

23/ "There is always something to learn from the enemy. It is right to learn from the enemy, his methods, his techniques, his management systems. So we know the right way. We have to develop that." /end

Source:
t.me/iamsniper/15443