(by Franco Iacch) Syria, here are the drones that attacked the Russians. The official photos show one of the 13 fixed-wing drones that took off from the southwestern region of Idlib that attacked two Russian military bases in Syria on 6 January. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, strange. I have dedicated the last 5 years of my career to the tactical evolution of drones in asymmetrical contexts. Public opinion still believes that these toys are harmless. To be honest, many approach the word exaggeration when it comes to UAVs: they are just ignorant, do not waste time with them. Beyond the conspiracies, Moscow has been raising the alarm for days about a possible use in an urban context. What we have before us: is it, as Moscow writes, a technological marvel? Unique, seemingly improvised design. Boxy fuselage covered in green plastic wrap and duct tape. It does not appear to come from known commercial models or kits. The drone appears to have been assembled using mostly wooden parts and tape. Liquid fuel servo and motor (for mower?) Maybe bought online. All the drones were equipped with GPS, pressure transducers and servo-actuators and armed with projectiles that resemble "mortar bombs". I note one last point. I understand that photographs can be misleading, like that wooden trolley obviously added later for the exhibition. They look like toys, extraordinarily crude. However, these toys flew 50km with explosives under their wings following a predetermined route using GPS coordinates available on the Internet. Moscow speaks of a hypothetical radius of 100 km. Obviously there are many obscure points, perhaps too many (not really a swarm tactic, they flew in the range of air defenses, immediate hacking, coordinates available but not exactly exact for a military base), but if the Syrian conflict is a showcase of technologies existing and emerging, the threat of a UAV swarm is extremely serious. I remember that ISIS has placed numerous guides on the network for the offensive conversion of commercial drones. This point too seems to have been forgotten by many.
Another technical cue is the semi-transparent casings with white plastic fins printed in 3D. A large metal hook allows you to place them under the wings. What I see looks like an aerodynamic plastic shell with perhaps epoxy resin inside it around an explosive nucleus. Definitely designed for fragmentation. We do not know the payload of the drone. We do not know if these bombs were really dropped. Perhaps excluded kamikaze variant? The technology needed to build such assets is available on the market.
I hope, therefore, that our services are preparing defense grids in our main cities.