Russia’s “Lancet” Drones Are The Terrifying New Face Of War
Russia’s “Lancet” suicide drone system has decimated Ukrainian artillery throughout the three-year war. And now the drones are for sale.
The Aero India 2025 international aerospace exhibition is proving to be a mind-blowing and history-making affair. Already, rare scenes of
Russian Su-57E warplanes parked across from U.S. F-35 Lightning II warplanes have proliferated across the internet, a sight that few believed would be possible without the two planes shooting at each other. Rumors about the goings-on at the event have been shared around the world. Now the Russians have added another layer of intrigue with the display of their
Lancet-E loitering munition system.
The “E” stands for “export,” since the entire point of the Aero India 2025 is for various nations and their defense contractors to advertise their products for potential foreign buyers. In this case, the Lancet series of loitering drone munitions is exported by the Russian firm
Rosoboronexport.
Russia’s Lancet-E system is three drones that operate in tandem. The first are the
Product 51-E and the Z-16-E drones, which act as reconnaissance scouts for Product 52-E, the guided munition carrier. Unlike the graceful-looking but
unproven Su-57, the Lancet family of drones have proven their mettle in the unfriendly skies above Ukraine since the Russians invaded in February 2022.
The Lancet is a Killer of NATO’s Artillery in Ukraine
Indeed, the
Lancet-3, an upgraded variant of the original Lancet system, is believed to have been responsible for
destroying almost 50 percent of the NATO artillery systems that Ukraine has used since the start of the war! There’s really not a better sales pitch one could make for such a nightmarish system to prospective foreign buyers.
Specifically, the Lancet drones utilized by Russian forces in the Ukraine War have done extreme damage to
the M777 lightweight howitzer cannon, the
Polish KRAB Self-Propelled Gun (SPG), and even important surface-to-air missile (SAM) batteries that Ukraine uses to knock down Russian warplanes.
Some Facts About the Lancet Drone System
The range of the Lancet loitering munition drone is about 40 to 50 miles. Previous iterations of Russian loitering munitions drones had a range of about half that. So Russia can now enjoy deeper penetration of Ukrainian territory to hit Ukrainian artillery and air defense systems from farther away, potentially punching holes in those defenses wide enough to allow for Russian airstrikes to have a better chance of being successful against their Ukrainian foes.
The Lancet drones are versatile and relatively cheap systems. They can carry a variety of warheads, from high-explosive (HE) to fragmentation, as well as shaped charge warheads that are meant to target various types of military assets from armored vehicles to fortifications. As for the guidance on these systems, they have optical-electronic guidance systems. Moreover, they can either be deployed autonomously or be operated by humans via remote control. Thermal cameras allow for effective nighttime attacks.
Lancet drones can be
deployed via a tube launch mechanism, which makes launching these drones simpler than others and allows for rapid deployment. Given the brutal nature of the Ukraine War, where Russian and Ukrainian forces are often operating near each other, slugging it out in trenches and slogging through muddy fields, having the ability to rapidly deploy such devastating weapons is a critical advantage for Russia.
The so-called
“Kamikaze Drones” are especially useful, too, because the drone itself, laden with whatever explosives the Russians have installed for a particular mission, becomes the cruise missile delivery system. It’s a very efficient and effective weapon that, again, can claim to have knocked out half of the NATO-provided artillery and SAM sites that the Ukrainians have lost since the start of the war.
The Shape of Things to Come
As awful as the Ukraine War has been for both sides—and it has been one of the bloodiest conflicts of this century—both the Russians and the Ukrainians have proven a remarkable ability to adapt. Since the Russians are a great power, though, their adaptations can now be translated to massive sales on the global arms market.
Drones have
utterly reshaped the face of war. Not even the Americans fully understand how profound the drones of the Ukraine War have changed the art of warfare in the modern age. And the Lancet system of loitering munition drones is the nightmare fuel that will run the 21st century’s various fear scenarios from now on.
Russia's "Lancet" suicide drone system has decimated Ukrainian artillery throughout the three-year war. And now the drones are for sale.
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