Ukraine's Rocket-Firing Drones Turn 'Asses Into Scraps'

Fire Point FP-1/2s use unguided rockets to suppress Russian air defenses

An FP-1/2 fires S-5s or S-8s. 414th Brigade capture

At least one Ukrainian drone unit, the 414th Separate Unmanned Strike Aviation System Brigade, has equipped its propeller-driven Fire Point FP-1/2 one-way attack drones with underwing air-to-surface rockets. A video of an FP-1/2 firing an unguided rocket circulated online last week.

Now we know the rationale. The rockets help the explosive drones suppress the air defenses protecting the drones’ main targets: other, bigger air defenses.

“Worms, lube up—now you’ve got candies in the rear, too,” the 414th Brigade quipped. “Especially MANPADS mobile groups and machine gunners guarding air defense elements.”

A MANPADS is a man-portable air-defense system: a shoulder-fired infared-guided missile. Russian surface-to-air missile batteries may have gunners and MANPADS teams around them to shield them from drone attack.