Russia ramps up drone production for attacks on Ukraine, likely focusing on decoy UAVs — Defense Express

According to the outlet, Ukrainian defense forces repelled the largest drone attack to date in the early hours of Sept. 7, when Russia launched 810 Shahed drones along with additional decoy UAVs.

Defense Express analysts believe the Russian military is persisting with its tactic of amassing large numbers of drones for synchronized strikes involving 500 or more UAVs.

They noted that the previous mass attack occurred four days earlier, on the night of Sept. 2–3, when Russian forces launched 502 drones. Ukrainian air defenses reportedly shot down or jammed 430 of them. Earlier, on the night of Aug. 29–30, Russia fired 537 drones, with 510 successfully intercepted or suppressed.

However, Defense Express wrote that it remains unclear whether these large-scale attacks spaced several days apart are the result of a significant expansion in Russia’s drone production capacity — or whether the Kremlin deliberately pauses between major barrages to accumulate enough drones for salvos of 500-plus UAVs and decoys capable of overwhelming Ukrainian air defenses.

“What also remains unknown is how many of the total drones in each salvo are actual Shaheds, and how many are other UAVs, including decoys and imitators. It is likely that Russia may have ramped up production specifically of the latter category,” Defense Express added.

During the night leading up to Sept. 7 — beginning at 5 p.m. on Sept. 6 — Russian forces launched a combined strike on Ukrainian territory using both attack UAVs and ground-launched missiles. In total, Ukraine’s Air Force reported that its radio-technical units detected and tracked 823 aerial targets during the assault.

As of 9:30 a.m., air defenses had shot down or suppressed 751 of them. Nine missiles and 54 attack drones hit 33 locations, while debris from intercepted drones fell on eight sites, the Air Force said.