Ukraine has taken an idea originally meant for Amazon to deliver small packages in Australia. Now they've been adapted to carry more lethal cargo and modified to fly longer distances. A Sukhoi Su-30 costs around $50 million. The cardboard drones cost around $3500. Not a bad rate of return.
Since they have their own autonomous systems for geolocation, as well as GPS, they're not able to be jammed like other drones, which makes them hard to bring down, especially at night. "The origami of doom", and "the IKEA of nightmares" are among the colorful nicknames for these things.
Source: New York Post
Small flat-packed cardboard drones reportedly destroyed at least five Russian fighter jets in the western city of Kursk last weekend — and may also have been used in a devastating attack on a military airfield in Pskov Tuesday that took four transport planes out of commission.
The Sunday attack on the Kursk Airfield, located not far from the border with Ukraine, wiped out a Mig-29 and four Su-30 combat jets, Ukraine’s Security Service reported.
Two Pantsir missile launchers and the radar of an S-300 air defense system were also believed to have been damaged.
The strike nearly 100 miles into the Russian territory was said to have been carried out using innovative cardboard drones made by the Australian firm SYPAQ, which cost just $3,500 apiece and are virtually undetectable by Russian radar systems.
In March, the manufacturer announced it had secured a contract with the Australian government to deliver 100 of the drones each month to Ukraine.
The easy-to-assemble unmanned aerial vehicles — with a payload of 6.6 pounds and a range of up to 75 miles — were originally designed to deliver light orders from Amazon across vast distances in Australia.
In the Ukrainians’ hands, it appears that they have been transformed into kamikaze drones.
Even Russian fanboys are impressed.
