The first daytime photo of the launch position of russian Shahed-136/131 kamikaze drone taken during the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine appeared on social media.
This photo allows us to see some details of how russians arrange the sites for launching their Shahed drones. It also answers the question of why it is difficult to destroy enemy Shahed-136/131s at their launch positions. Therefore, it looks more promising to destroy warehouses with these UAVs using Ukrainian long-range missiles.
We can note that the Shahed’s launch tripod is placed on a small concrete slab, roughly the size of the UAV itself, which has a wingspan and fuselage length of two meters and three meters, respectively. We are talking about an object with extremely small dimensions, which is extremely difficult to hit even for the most modern precision weapons.
Russian Shahed drone at its launch position / Photo from russian sources
According to the inscriptions on the drone, we can assume that the Shahed drones arrive at the launch position already equipped with a warhead and refueled with aviation fuel. It means that their equipment takes place outside the launch pad.
This detail indicates that russian occupiers may not store fuel and warheads at launch sites, which in turn excludes the possibility of hitting the target due to secondary detonation as a result of a missile strike.
Areas of russian Shahed launches against Ukrainian territory
These details may look especially sad if we recall the fact that the launch sites of russian Shahed drones are located only about 200 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
However, when it comes to the option of hunting down russian Shahed-136/131 storage sites, the task becomes even more complicated. This ia due to the fact that russians disguise the storage facilities for their kamikaze UAVs in the middle of civilian infrastructure, following the example of their “colleagues” from the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groupings.
Source: Defense Express