A jet drone was spotted over the Belgorod region of Russia. Local Russians are getting used to constant drone attacks and the hopelessness of their own air defences, but they haven’t seen jet drones before. They will now have to get used to them too.
A jet drone somewhere in the skies over Belgorod region of Russia. (Screenshot)
Jet drones circling over the Belgorod region were filmed by local residents. There is almost no doubt that these are kamikaze drones, but it was not reported whether they destroyed anything. It is also not reported whether they were shot down or taken down using some electronic warfare tools. But there are already guesses as to what these aircraft could have been.
In May of last year, it was reported that the United Kingdom had handed over Banshee jet drones to Ukraine. In February of this year, Russian invaders found the wreckage of a similar drone in the occupied part of the Donetsk region. It is believed that the defenders of Ukraine are using British drones for attacks on important targets or have copied the Banshee design and are now producing something similar themselves.
Interestingly, the Banshee was developed back in the 1980s, but had a pusher propeller configuration back then. The Royal Navy only crammed two jet engines into the Banshee’s tail in 2021. This is how the Banshee Jet 80+ was created, which has endurance for 45 minutes and a range of just over 100 km.
The Banshee will certainly not be the longest-range drone in the Ukrainian arsenal, but it has a speed of 720 km/h and goes up to an altitude of 9 km, so it is not the easiest thing to shoot down. It should be remembered that Iran has also developed a jet version of the Shahed-136 drone. Despite the fact that jet drones are more expensive, they are harder to shoot down with the cheapest means, unlike the slow propeller drones.
Banshee drones are used all over the world. Over the years over 8,000 of them were manufactured, mostly with propeller engines. But here’s an interesting detail: Banshee was not designed for the tasks that the Ukrainians are using it for.
The Banshee was originally designed as a target drone for air defence systems. It is used in exercises to test the readiness of soldiers and equipment to counter various threats from the air. The Banshee Jet 80+ was designed for the same task. But the defenders of Ukraine, unfortunately, have no shortage of aerial targets, so they install 7 kg of explosives on the Banshee and send these drones at Russian targets like smaller and slower cruise missiles.
Ukraine received a limited number of Banshee drones. However, these precise tools will certainly do their part in attacking crucial targets in Russia. Lately those have been various objects in the Russian oil industry.
Written by Povilas M.
Sources: NOELReports Twitter, Wikipedia