Drone-on-Drone War Ensues As Ukrainian UAV With Wooden Stick Tries Disabling Russian ZALA Drone | Aviation

Both Ukrainian and Russian armies are using their expendable UAVs not only to strike targets on the ground, but also to strike each others’ drones in flight, in what could be defined as a low-cost anti-UAV loitering munition concept.

With the proliferation of cheap, commercially available UAVs adopted by both sides, the Ukrainian front is now being characterized by frequent drone-on-drone wars. For an instance, an Ukrainian UAV armed with a stick, as seen in the nose camera footage recently emerged online, made multiple attempts to strike the propeller of a Russian ZALA 421-16E reconnaissance drone.

The assault is claimed to have disabled the engine of the flying-wing Russian drone, however in the video it’s not possible to evaluate the outcome of the attack. Such encounters are now becoming commonplace, with dozens of videos released by both sides damaging each other’s UAVs this way.

The ZALA 421-16E5 is a tactical drone, powered by a push-propeller used for simple elementary sector-sized ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance). Some Russian Telegram channels also claim it is capable of communications relay with a swappable internal module, in addition to the nose-mounted, gyro-stabilized EO (Electro-Optical)…