The Russians cover Shahed kamikaze drones with carbon-based materials or paint them black to make it harder for Ukrainian air defense to detect and shoot them down, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said. Ukrainian Pravda.

• “They used to improve the UAVs they got from Iran and the ones they make themselves using composite materials for the reflective surface. Now we see that they used carbon fiber. Carbon is an absorbing material for radar signals, and as for the color black, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. This will complicate air defense operations, especially visual targeting by mobile fire groups,” Ignat said.

Attack on Kyiv by drones painted in black

On Saturday, the Ukrainian capital was hit by what officials said was the worst drone attack since the start of the war, injuring five people as the sounds of anti-aircraft fire and explosions woke residents. Images of the Shahed drone, painted black to make it harder to detect, appeared on social media.

The attack hit various districts of Kyiv on Saturday morning, and the air raid warning lasted for six hours.

The Air Force of Ukraine initially stated that 71 of the 75 drones were shot down, but later revised the number of downed aircraft to 74.

A spokesman for the Air Force stated on television that 66 of them were shot down over Kyiv and the surrounding area.

Iran modified drones for Russia to cause maximum damage to Ukraine

According to a new investigative report exclusively obtained by CNN in February 2023, Iran appears to be modifying the attack drones it supplies to Russia so that the explosive warheads can cause maximum damage to infrastructure targets in Ukraine.

An unexploded warhead of an Iranian Shahed-131 drone found in the south of Odesa region in October 2022 was examined in January by the British organization Conflict Armament Research together with the Ukrainian military.

The group’s analysts believe the warheads, which are less than two meters long, were hastily modified with ill-fitting layers of dozens of small metal fragments that scatter over a large radius on impact. In addition to these fragments, there are 18 smaller “charges” around the circumference of the warhead, which, when melted by the explosion, can penetrate armor and create something like a “360 degree” explosive effect.

This accumulation of elements essentially maximizes the ability to destroy targets such as power plants, distribution networks, power lines, and high-powered transformers. In addition, repairs are much more difficult.

“It’s like they looked at a finished warhead and said, ‘How can we make it even more destructive?'” said Damien Splitters, one of the researchers who studied the warhead.

Drones that target weapons on the battlefield, such as tanks or artillery, can be designed differently, Splitters explained, with a frontal payload used for more concentrated targets. However, the warhead investigated by CAR has a radially shaped loading effect, which can result in a larger impact surface.