Drone Wars: Gremlins Versus the Kremlin

The Kalashnikov Group is producing a small weaponized unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called KUB-BLA that explodes on impact like an unmanned miniature kamikaze aircraft. The news was released at the IDEX 2019 trade show in Abu Dhabi. The UAV is propeller-driven and designed to destroy remote ground targets. It isn't as small as commercial drones that you might see in a local park. It's about four feet in length, and users can set coordinates for the strike manually or via the drone's guidance system. It then crashes into its target exploding a six-pound warhead on impact.
The KUB-LA has hidden launch capabilities, a range of about 40 miles, and is supposedly difficult to detect (noiseless by the propeller) and shoot down by traditional means. The Kremlin may or may not have ordered the drone into production, but details are unclear. Israel has had a similar drone called the Harpy, which is launched by truck, on the market for about 25 years.

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PR Newswire | September 21, 2023

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GlobeNewswire | October 19, 2023

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