Russia announced the creation of a UAV capable of destroying Leopard tanks
Russian engineers believe that the payload of the drone is enough to penetrate 100 mm armor, but it has not yet been tested.
The Spektr design bureau from Novosibirsk announced the creation of a drone capable of destroying German Leopard tanks. The company’s executive director, Andriy Bratenkov, told the Russian newspaper “Komsomolska Pravda” about the details.
According to him, the drone can carry weapons that penetrate armor more than 100 millimeters thick. This is supposedly enough to destroy NATO heavy combat equipment like Leopard. It is worth noting that the thickness of the armor of the Leopard 1 tank body is 100 mm, and in the Leopard 2A5 and later models, according to the estimates of German army soldiers, it is 150 mm.
Andriy Bratenkov added that Spektra specialists have improved and scaled the drone, capable of lifting a payload weighing up to 1 kg: two grenades or four “unbelievable elements”, which they plan to choose based on the results of fire tests.
The cost of the serial model is estimated at 2.5 million rubles (about $33.5 thousand). Spektr promises to launch production in Novosibirsk after receiving financing or a state order.
It will be recalled that on January 25, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz approved the supply of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
The very next day, the former head of Roscosmos, Dmytro Rogozin, announced that the Russian Armed Forces would send the Russian “Marker” robots capable of destroying Leopard and Abrams tanks to the front lines. According to him, the drones will receive an electronic catalog of images that will be checked for automatic target identification and subsequent attack.
There was information that the German government decided to transfer 88 old Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine. The machines must be repaired before delivery, but ammunition for them is no longer produced, although a certain amount is available in Brazil.
