Servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down the Russian ZALA 421-16Е2 drone, which was carrying out a reconnaissance mission.

The enemy UAV was shot down by the soldiers of the 58th Motorized Infantry Brigade named after Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky.

The Ukrainian Bukovel-AD electronic warfare system was used to neutralize the Russian reconnaissance drone.

“Soldiers “landed “enemy ZALA 421-16E2 UAV. This is the one that was praised in Russia to be invulnerable and invisible.

Yet soldiers from the electronic warfare platoon of the engineering support team and their Bukovel-AD did not leave the enemy any chance,” the 58th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.

The soldiers shared that this model of the Russian drone is designed to conduct aerial reconnaissance and surveillance at any time of the day at a distance of up to 35 km with real-time video transmission.

ZALA 421-16Е2 UAV is designed due to the flying wing scheme and is equipped with a daytime camera with 60x optical zoom and a thermal imaging module. The Russian ZALA AERO company developed the drone.

“Due to the coordinated operation of the military, this “bird” has made its last flight. The soldiers strike accurately, “the 58th Brigade emphasized.

The drone can stay in the air for up to 4 hours. ZALA 421-16Е2 UAV lands with a parachute using an air shock absorber, which minimizes the risk of damage during landing.

Specifications of ZALA 421-16Е2:

• Maximum takeoff weight 7.5 kg;
• Maximum weight of the payload is 1.5 kg;
• Wingspan 2,800 mm;
• Effective altitude 200 – 5 000 m;
• Flight speed 70 – 125 km/h;
• Launch Elastic/pneumatic launcher;
• Operating temperature range -40 ° C… + 50 ° C;
• Permissible wind speed 15 m/s.

The Ukrainian Proximus LLC developed the Bukovel-AD electronic warfare system. The system is designed for early detection of enemy UAVs and complete blocking of data transmission and GPS/GLONASS (in new versions also Galileo and Beidou) control channels. A key element of this solution was the ground station, which consists of detection and control modules. The system also has a passive drone detection and direction-finding system.

In addition to jamming GPS and GLONASS control channels, the system also generates a series of false signals, which significantly increases the overall performance of defending against enemy drones. The manufacturer stated that the effective range of Bukovel reaches 15-20 kilometers.