Drone With 100-kg Warhead Destroys Pantsir-S1 Near Melitopol

Near Melitopol, a Russian air-defense system, the Pantsir-S1, was found destroyed after being hit by a drone carrying a 100-kg warhead.

A photo of the destroyed system was shared on X (Twitter) by Vitaliy Bogdanov.

According to OSINT analyst blinzka, the drone flew about 90 km before striking the air-defense system near the village of Nove in the Zaporizhzhia region, which is located a few kilometers from Melitopol.

The commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert ‘Madyar’ Brovdi, said that an FP-2 drone was used in the operation.

“The pilots of the 1st Center of the Unmanned Systems Forces carried out the strike using a Ukrainian-made middle-strike FP-2 drone with a 100-kg warhead,” the commander said.

As a result of the strike by the Ukrainian drone, the radar of the Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile and gun system was torn off, and the launcher along with the vehicle itself was completely destroyed.

The FP-2 drones are manufactured by the Ukrainian company Fire Point – a Ukrainian drone manufacturer. 

The FP-2 drone follows the design of the long-range FP-1 drone, which is used to strike targets deep in the Russian rear.

The drone has versions with autonomous guidance for attacking static targets, as well as versions that can be manually controlled by an operator via radio link to strike moving targets.

It is known that at least one version of the warhead is an adapted OFAB-100-110-TU aerial bomb weighing 121 kilograms.

The company is currently working to increase the flight range of the FP-2 strike drone, which currently stands at around 200 kilometres.

Last year, it was reported that Ukraine’s Defense Forces had already destroyed 48% of Russia’s Pantsir-S1 air defense systems.