The Ukrainian kamikaze drone SETH, which resembles a smaller version of the Iranian-made Shahed due to its wing shape, can strike targets at a depth of 40 km, operates in tandem with a relay drone and costs several hundred thousand dollars. 

Source: a serviceman who goes under the alias "Yas" and commander of the unmanned systems battalion of the12th Special Forces Brigade Azov, in an interview with The War Zone, a US military technology, strategy, and foreign policy platform

Details:Yas stated that the SETH can engage targets up to 40 km away, though the success of long-distance operations often depends on weather conditions. The drone can be fitted with either a high-explosive or a fragmentation-explosive warhead weighing up to 3 kg.

The drone’s navigation is based on protected GPS, and targeting is done via an integrated computer vision system, following manual confirmation of the target by the operator.

SETH drones.

Photo: Come Back Alive

Quote:"In practice, we have already had cases of actual combat deployment of those systems, but I’m not really ready to comment on their success at this moment. However, I would just like to say that since these systems are quite expensive – one system costs approximately several hundred thousand dollars – we need to find high-value targets for such systems. So for example, this can be the enemy’s air defence assets. 

And I think that one of the interesting specificities for deployment of these unmanned systems is that the reconnaissance drone that is used in tandem with this drone, it is also used as the repeater for the strike component of the system. In general, this drone has huge potential, but still, the technology is quite raw. It still has to be refined." 

Background: Previously, Brave1, a defence technology development cluster created by the Ukrainian government, conducted tests to improve the technology of kamikaze drones and to identify the most effective models among them. The main objective is to increase the killzone to 30–40 km – a range rarely reached by conventional FPV drones.

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