Defense Express comments on first case when Russian Lancet was downed by FPV drone

He voiced this opinion on Espreso TV.

"In any case, this is not an absolutely widespread case, it is an exception, which is the first documented case of a Lancet being hit by an FPV drone. Officially, Ukraine uses drones to monitor its airspace and search for enemy reconnaissance UAVs, and it was a Zala-type reconnaissance drone that was first spotted there. And Zala and Lancet usually work very closely together, meaning that one indicates targets for the other. Apparently, at this stage, activities began to launch drones to intercept Zala, but Lancet appeared in the sky," Katkov said.

The military expert emphasized that this indicates skill combined with military luck.

"The interception of the Lancet took place at opposite speeds, meaning that the Lancet was flying at over a hundred kilometers, and even if the FPV drone had zero horizontal speed, the operator had little time to reach the point where their trajectories would converge. This really, first of all, shows the exceptional skill of the operator. As we have seen, he hit the Lancet, the wreckage of which was found. On the one hand, there is excellent evidence that such interceptions are possible, and there is also a fairly logical conclusion that in conditions where interception directly depends on such things as luck, plus the operator's exceptional skill, coordination, because you need to know and get an accurate indication - where this missile is coming from, what its course is, what its altitude, speed, and to time it," explained the editor-in-chief of Defence Express.

Katkov added: "All of this can be simplified if we talk about using modern technologies like machine vision, when the drone can already detect the target in the sky on its own, and this is a great option, the operator will only make the decision to destroy it, and the computer will calculate the point of contact."

Ukrainian FPV drone targets Russian Lancet attack UAV

The Signum unit of the 93rd Detached Mechanized Brigade Kholodnyi Yar showed an episode with a successful interception of a Russian Lancet kamikaze drone by an FPV drone. 

The information was made public by volunteer Serhiy Sternenko. The video captured the interception itself, and then showed the wreckage of the Lancet. It is likely that the Ukrainian FPV drone used an aerial explosion to hit the target.