Ukraine’s $1000 Kamikaze Drones Blew Up Russia’s $100 Million Buk and Tor Surface-to-air Missiles

Ukraine’s SBU security service has released aerial footage showing ‘Kamikaze’ drones that stalk Russia’s modern air defense systems.

The Ukrainian Defence Forces have destroyed almost 100 pieces of Russian military equipment. In particular, kamikaze drones hit four anti-aircraft missile systems at once.

The Security Service of Ukraine has published video of the combat work of the drones. The drones eliminated two tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles, an electronic warfare station and three Nona self-propelled artillery units.

Dramatic new video shows the moment Ukrainian kamikaze-style drones stalked Russian Buk-M1 (SA-11 Gadfly) medium-range surface-to-air missile system and three Tor-M2 (SA-15 Gauntlet) short-to-medium range surface-to-air missile systems.

As the chase heats up, the drones descend to an altitude of just a few dozen feet above the ground and hit Russian air defense systems. One “Tor” tried to shoot down a kamikaze drone, but the pilot kept the drone safe – manually diverted it from the missile, and then “captured” the target and caught up with the enemy surface-to-air missile system.

The Oryx open-source intelligence site reports that Russia has apparently lost 36 Tor-M2 series surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems and 21 Buk-M1 series SAMs in Ukraine since Russia began an invasion.

The Security Service said in a post-Saturday that its special agents also destroyed another three Nona self-propelled artillery systems, 3 infantry fighting vehicles, 2 tanks, an electronic warfare station and enemy fortifications with kamikaze drones.

However, the main trophies were antiaircraft missile systems. The drones managed to hit one Buk-M1 and three Tor-M2 SAMs at once. The video shows a drone dodging a missile fired at it, then catching up with and destroying the target. The cost of one Tor anti-aircraft missile system is $15 million and Buk missile is $55 million.

The list of destroyed targets does not end there. The Security Service statement says that together with the artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, it managed to eliminate an additional 84 pieces of enemy equipment, including seven tanks, six Grad multiple rocket launchers, six self-propelled howitzers, 11 cannons and 21 armoured vehicles.

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