Two Hapless Russian Drone Operators Rolled Out In An Unarmored Truck. The Ukrainians Blasted Them With HIMARS And Drones.
A ‘cheerful cluster munition’ struck first.
David Axe | Feb 15, 2025 | 03:17pm EST
Ukrainian main intelligence directorateIt might seem like overkill. But there’s a reason the Ukrainian main intelligence directorate devoted precious resources—a surveillance drone, a High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System and at least two attack drones—to a coordinated effort to track and strike a two-man Russian drone team.
As Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds into its fourth year and resource-fixated U.S. Pres. Donald Trump threatens to nudge the politics of the conflict in Russia’s favor, the Ukrainians are fighting to preserve their most important battlefield edge: their advantage in drones.
The overwhelming strike on the Russian Orlan drone team, somewhere in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast recently, began with a Ukrainian Shark surveillance drone patrolling a snowy dirt road somewhere on the Russian side of the front line in the oblast.
It spotted a solitary civilian-style truck—and followed it. After losing more than 15,000 purpose-made military vehicles, Russian forces increasingly travel—and even attack—in civilian cars, trucks and vans.
The Ukrainian drone team’s curiosity paid off. The Russian truck parked and two Russians piled out, carrying an Orlan surveillance drone between them. The Orlan is one of the Russian armed forces’ primary surveillance drones.
Determined to destroy the Orlan and its launch team before the drone could contribute to Russian surveillance of the front line, the Ukrainian intelligence directorate rang up the Ukrainian army—and requested assistance from one of the army’s American-made HIMARS launchers.
Responding quickly—note that the Orlan team was still setting up its drone for launch—the HIMARS fired what appeared to be an M30 rocket from potentially scores of miles away. The “cheerful cluster munition,” as the intelligence directorate described it, exploded . . .
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/02/15/two-hapless-russian-drone-operators-rolled-out-in-an-unarmored-truck-the-ukrainians-blasted-them-with-himars-and-drones/
