- Ukraine said Tuesday it used seven explosive drones to destroy a Russian radar system.
- Ukrainian media said the destroyed system was a Nebo-U, which monitored hundreds of kilometers of airspace.
- Ukraine estimated that the Nebo-U, shot down by cheap drones, was worth $100 million.
Ukrainian media reported Tuesday that kyiv destroyed a sophisticated Russian radar complex using seven explosive drones, another clear sign of how these cheap unmanned devices are changing the face of modern combat.
Citing an anonymous source from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Kyiv Independent and Ukrainska Pravda reported that the Russian system was a Nebo-U radar complex stationed in Bryansk, a Russian region bordering northern Ukraine.
It monitored Ukrainian airspace up to 434 miles beyond the border, according to the SBU source. Ukrainian media reported that the destroyed Nebo-U was worth around $100 million.
The exact price of this Nebo-U is not immediately clear, but it is a newer system deployed to Russian forces about eight years ago, according to Russian state media.
With the elimination of this Nebo-U, the SBU source said, Russia now has “less opportunities to detect air targets along Ukraine’s northern border.”
Ukraine said this was the second Nebo-U destroyed, with the first destroyed in Belgorod, a Russian region close to the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine.
Multiple variations of the Nebo, which translates to “sky” in Russian, are used by Russian air and ground forces. More modern versions, such as the Nebo-U and Nebo-M, were listed at launch by Russian media as being capable of detecting aircraft, guided missiles and ballistic elements up to a range of 372 miles .
In recent weeks, Ukraine has stepped up drone strikes on Russian soil, attacking targets hundreds of kilometers from the front lines. On April 5, for example, it launched a large-scale drone attack on an air base in Russia’s Rostov region.
kyiv also hit several Russian oil processing facilities in border regions, including Russia’s third-largest refinery, located about 800 miles from the front.
The Russian Defense Ministry and Ukraine’s security services did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s after-hours requests for comment.
The war in Ukraine has highlighted the combat deployment of unmanned first-person drones, which are inexpensive and often equipped with explosives that can be dropped or projected onto targets with precision.
This tactic has been used more widely in recent high-profile conflicts elsewhere, including by Hamas during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and by Yemen’s Houthi rebels harassing international shipping in the Red Sea.
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