Ukraine's anti-aircraft gunners shoot down Russian experimental drone Merlin-VR
Illustrative photo: Russian reconnaissance drone Merlin-VR (facebook.com/pasha.k.kashchuk)
The Ukrainian military has eliminated a Russian Merlin-VR drone. The rare drone was shot down by anti-aircraft gunners and pilots of the 63rd Brigade, according to Khortytsia operational and strategic group of troops.
According to the Ukrainian military, 2 crews of FPV drones were tracking the Russian drone at once.
“The one who did not have time to destroy the prey filmed the explosion and the flying of debris in the sky,” the video is captioned.
Merlin-VR drone
Russian experimental unmanned aerial vehicle. It is designed to conduct reconnaissance in automatic and semi-automatic modes.
According to open sources, this drone can stay in the air for up to ten hours and climb to an altitude of 5 km. This is many times longer than the Russian Supercam and ZALA.
The payload is 6.5 kilograms, which allows the drone to be equipped with a powerful optoelectronic module.
The drone is manufactured at the facilities of a Russian institute in Smolensk.
On the night of January 16, Russians launched 55 Shahed-type attack drones and various types of imitators against Ukraine. Ukrainian air defense managed to destroy 34 of them.
