And with the advent of APKWS, there will be even more downed Eagles
The Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to ‘trophy’ a non-standard version of the Russian ‘Orlan-10’ drone – a photo of the ‘impact’ version of the reconnaissance UAV, which is actually a rather rare trophy for our defenders, has spread online.
#Ukraine:A rather unusual Orlan-10 drone fell down recently, reportedly downed by Ukrainian EW systems.
This type is adapted for targeting ground targets and carries 4x OFSP HE-FRAG bomblets in special underwing pods. Only a couple of Orlan bombers were shot down since Feb 24th. pic.twitter.com/PIxwBaEw0r
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) January 5, 2023
Let’s immediately note that the appearance of the impact version of the ‘Orlans’ became known as early as May 2022, and it was actively promoted by the Rashists themselves as a ‘unique development’ carried out at the factory level.
As a matter of fact, the photo once again confirms that there is no ‘analogovnet’ there – the developers simply attached two containers to the UAV, which can each contain two 40-mm free-falling high-explosive fragmentation bombs with 100-150 g of explosives.
At the same time, in the context of the downed Orlans, it is worth mentioning that Germany has already sent APKWS missiles to Ukraine, which showed impressive results during additional tests against drones. Therefore, now the ‘Orlans’ – reconnaissance or strike – have a new enemy who will watch over these ‘birds’ flying less in the Ukrainian sky.