The explosion on August 9 at the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant in Sergiev Posad near Moscow disrupted the production of Russian Lancet drones.
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This explosion occurred as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack, Forbes reports.
Russian media showed a video of the Lancet-producing company Zal Aero with its flamboyant CEO Alexander Zakharov riding a Segway around a gigantic new production facility in a converted shopping center, the American publication writes.
A video showed racks of hundreds of Lancet planes, and one article suggested that production could increase fiftyfold. This looked like bad news for Ukraine. But instead of increasing, the number of Lancet strikes has decreased markedly, Forbes notes.
In estimating the number of Lancet strikes, the publication refers to the Russian resource LostArmour, which publishes all the videos of strikes by these drones that were distributed on social networks.
In all likelihood, this is only a small part of the total. One Ukrainian source puts the Lancets’ success rate at about 30%, indicating that for every impact video there are several failures or downed devices, Forbes notes.
The number of Lancet strikes rose from about 25 per month in early 2023 to nearly 50 in March and April, before peaking at 135 strikes in July. In August there were approximately the same number of them – 126, but since then the number of Lancet strikes has not increased, but, on the contrary, has decreased. September and October were in the 50s, with strike video posts rising to 89 in November and dropping back to 59 in December.
Since the Lancet is filled with imported components, including the engine and on-board electronics, and the elements that ZALA produces independently are the airframe, power supply and camera, the explosion at the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant could interrupt the supply of cameras, the publication believes.
Source: Racurs
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