Russia builds new base for launching jet-powered drones near Ukraine’s border in just six weeks

Filed 42m ago · Via Meduza · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Miri's Magic Dance

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: WGN-TV · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters shows Russia has nearly completed a major new drone-launch base in the Rostov region near Ukraine, built in roughly six weeks on what was empty farmland as of August 31. The complex now covers an area equal to about 126 soccer fields and includes eight launch pads.

Intelligence analyst Mike Monnik said the site appears designed for Russia's newer jet-powered Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones, which fly faster and farther than earlier models and are harder for standard interceptors to shoot down. He estimated the base could eventually launch around 100 such drones a day and could be fully operational within weeks.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Six weeks to stand up a base the size of over a hundred soccer fields tells you something about where the money and urgency are going, and it isn't toward peace talks. Faster drones that dodge the cheap interceptors mean the defense just got more expensive for the people on the receiving end. Nobody announced this one with a press release, which is usually how you know it's real.

Source: Read the original at Meduza → Scored: Miri's Magic Dance · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0