Russia increasingly using cheap, unidentified drones in Ukraine – Air Force

The Russian military is using these drones more frequently, in addition to Shahed drones, which often fall due to the work of Ukrainian electronic warfare systems.

Out of the 13 drones that were "lost" overnight on Oct. 4, 10 were likely of different types. The identification of these drones is conducted after they fall to the ground.

In particular, Russia often launches cheap Gerber drones, which come in three variants: electronic reconnaissance drones, kamikaze drones, or decoy targets. According to Defence Express, these drones have a fuselage made of foam plastic and are assembled quite primitively.

Ihnat also explained why the Air Force has been using the term "locally lost" in its reports. This means that the target, which was being tracked by the Air Force's radar systems, disappears from the radar—it could either run out of fuel or crash under the influence of electronic warfare systems.

The Russian army uses a large number of aerial attack assets for reconnaissance or to overload the Ukrainian air defense systems, Ihnat added.

Russia launched 13 drones against Ukraine, and the air defense system shot down three of them overnight on Oct. 4. According to the Air Force, the other 10 were lost locally in the south and north of the country.