Demonstration hunt of Switchblade 600 and Ukrainian Shark for Russian Thor
Despite the fact that the video is supposedly another destruction of the Russian “Tor”, in fact, it contains a number of extremely interesting moments that reveal the real capabilities of each type of weapon
Advisor to the Minister for Strategic Industries Yaroslav Oliynyk (“Loki”) showed a more than interesting video of the “pair” in the form of a reconnaissance UAV Shark from Ukrspecsystems (part of NAUDI), an American kamikaze drone Switchblade 600 against the Thor SAM.
As a result of the attack, the Russian anti-aircraft missile system, which is considered the most effective against small targets, including drones, was destroyed. The events themselves took place several months ago.
Frontline life in Tokmak direction. A few months ago, I was a recon UAV pilot. Here’s a special video – our first TOR-2M Russian anti-aircraft system takedown. A Switchblade 600 hit it, and I was adjusting fire with a Shark drone from Ukrspecsystems. This footage captures the… pic.twitter.com/ybiPcY3Wv7
– Loki (@yaroslav_loki) November 18, 2023
The video itself has already been geolocated with high accuracy by OSINT analysts and the events are taking place in the Kharkiv area, 13 km from liberated Robotyn, in front of the enemy’s second line of defense.
At the same time, in addition to the fact of destruction, even with the Switchblade 600, which rarely appears in the news, it is most interesting how and under what conditions the damage occurs. To begin with, the area is definitely covered by a dense and powerful electronic warfare system, but this does not prevent the Shark UAV from operating and transmitting accurate information about the target in the form of a Thor.
At the same time, the Russian air defense system itself was in working order and was monitoring the airspace, but for some time it did not see the Ukrainian drone. Only after changing positions does the Thor crew try to target the drone by deploying a radar targeting station. But the launch does not take place, at least not on video, or the Thor made a mistake.
In any case, after some time, Thor himself was destroyed by the Switchblade 600. Unfortunately, the moment of impact was not recorded, but it is clear that the system itself was immobilized, taken out of combat status, and the crew abandoned the vehicle. Most likely, this SAM was later finally “killed” by other means. At the same time, the Thor was also unable to target the Switchblade 600, and Russian electronic warfare systems were unable to prevent it.
It should also be noted that the enemy vehicles move quite freely in front of the anti-tank ditch, which may indicate the absence of dense minefields directly in front of it at the time of this battle.
Thus, this video is an excellent demonstration of the real capabilities of the Ukrainian reconnaissance drone Shark, against which Russian electronic warfare and the Thor air defense system, which, although it saw the Ukrainian UAV, was unable to destroy it. And, of course, the Switchblade 600, which allowed us to disable the target itself.
