National Guardsmen acquire Russian reconnaissance UAV in Kharkiv Oblast
Ukrainian National Guardsmen have located a functioning Russian ZALA 421-16E2 unmanned aircraft with the help of a service dog named Zeus near Hoptivka border crossing point in Kharkiv Oblast.
Source: The National Guard of Ukraine
Details: A tactical unmanned aircraft ZALA 421-16E2 can conduct aerial reconnaissance at an altitude of 5 km and transmit videos up to a range of 30 km. It has a flight time of four hours.
The National Guardsmen said that they received information about Russian UAV operating in their region. When they saw the UAV, they decided to open fire. But it suddenly started coming down and made an emergency landing, falling near the border with the Russian Federation.
"We have called a search group which includes a service dog named Zeus. We used his skills to save the lives of the personnel and minimise the search time. We were lucky to find a ragged brake parachute first. This enabled our Zeus to work," one of the National Guardsmen said.
A special feature of this UAV is that it is able to work at night, because it is equipped with a thermal imager.
Quote by a National Guardsman: "With its assistance, an operator can detect positions and adjust fire onto a target due to the automatic target detection module. The drone turned out to be safe, it was not fitted with any munitions. It weighs 7.5 kilos. It can be hand-launched using an electric catapult. It lands with a parachute. At the moment, it is hard to intercept it with electronic warfare systems. It operates independently from navigating systems.
It is really a very good model, made thanks to Western technologies, and it is valued highly. Especially since there are not a lot of them. Besides, Western sanctions make their production very problematic. Now, we are going to use this piece of ‘Russian’ lend-lease against the enemy."
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