The Armed Forces was knocked down by the most expensive Russian drone "Merlin-Br": who lost the occupiers (video)

To spread: the Ukrainian military with the help of anti-aircraft drone destroyed the most expensive reconnaissance drone of the Russian Federation called "Merlin-BR". This was reported on the page on Facebook by the press service of the 63 separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces "Steel Lions". An inexpensive shock drone worth $ 500 caught up with "Merlin-Br", approached from above, flew to the front of the optical module, and probably remotely exploded.

Another UAV soon struck another scout of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation - SuperCam, in the sky above the estuary of Donetsk region. According to the brigade, Merlin BP costs about $ 300,000 (12. 5 million UAH) and is the most precious reconnaissance UAV in Russia. It is noted that this is the second such aircraft on the account of 63 OMBR.

According to the OSINT Project Oryx, since the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Russia has lost at least 11 "Merlin-VR", with 5 of them destroyed, and 6 more were captured by Ukrainians. As they wrote earlier, Merlin-BR was developed by the Smolensk Research Institute of Modern Telecommunication Technologies for Automatic and semi-automatic reconnaissance. The aircraft was first introduced in September 2021, but the Russians did not report testing or production.

However, Ukrainian experts, having disassembled one of Merlin-VR ", noticed on some details the marking of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which indicates possible mass production and adoption. On the other hand, in the territory of Ukraine, such devices are used infrequently, possibly because of the high cost and difficulty with obtaining components.

For example, many foreign parts have been found within the disassembled UAVs, the sale of which is prohibited by international sanctions. In particular, the thermal imaging chamber with the French matrix Lynred (Ulis) PICO1024 with a resolution of 1024*768, better than the Russian drones "Orlan-10", as well as the Israeli lens, Chinese starter generator. The Russian developers themselves claim that Merlin-BP can fly up to 10 hours, rise to a height of 5 km and overcome to 600 km.

In this case, it is equipped with opto-location equipment weighing up to 6. 5 kg. The camera operates in a visible and infrared range up to 30 km away, thanks to it UAVs can collect intelligence and adjust artillery. It is one of the largest drones of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with a wingspan of about 5 meters. On the eve, it became known that the Armed Forces were struck by the shock-reconnaissance UAV "Forpost" with the help of a drone-interceptor at a height of 4 km.