Ukrainian drones with 15 kg warheads disrupt Russian radars in Crimea

Thanks to relatively lightweight warheads, Ukrainian drones are effectively and consistently disabling Russia's costly radar stations, Defense Express reports.

The Ukrainian Defense Forces have moved to systematic and successful strikes on Russian air defense systems in occupied Crimea, using still undisclosed strike drones. Although there have been previous videos showing Russian radar systems being hit, these were usually taken by the Russian military at night. Now, there are daytime photos showing the damage to two radar stations.

The images show S-400 system radar stations that were attacked on April 25, 2025, near Saky. While the post mentions the damage to only one radar, two are visible in the photos.

The first radar is most likely the 96L6 radar, which is a search and target acquisition radar (referred to as a "multi-height detector"). The 96L6 can either be included in the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system or operate independently.

The second radar visible in the photo is the 91N6 radar (or its older version, the 64N6), which is easily identifiable by its characteristic phased array antenna. This radar is designed for panoramic surveillance of the entire airspace and is part of the S-400 system at the division level.

Both radars show visible damage to their antenna arrays, which means the radar systems are disabled. Additionally, these systems now require a detailed repair, which must be carried out at specialized facilities.

At this time, it is unclear which drones were used for these successful strikes. However, previous attacks on similar targets in occupied Crimea have been carried out by the Prymary (Phantoms) unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, which is credited with a significant number of destroyed Russian radars and air defense systems.

Based on publicly available footage of these strikes, including drone footage, and the debris shown by the Russians, the drones involved could be Rubaka 'kamikaze' drones. These drones have publicly known characteristics: a range of up to 500 km, and a warhead weight ranging from 2 to 15 kg. As seen, such a warhead is enough to disable radar systems.

However, if the goal is to completely destroy these radars, a much larger warhead would be required. Even the most effective airburst from a HIMARS GMLRS causes fragmentation damage to the target using tungsten penetrators. The radars in the photos appear almost intact. To completely incinerate such a target would require something like ATACMS.