Yesterday OSINT specialist Arslon Xudosi posted on Twitter photos of the Polish kamikaze drone Warmate, which allegedly began to be used by fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is good news, especially since the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has been looking at these weapons for a long time. Let's take a closer look.
#Ukraine: Ukrainian forces started to use suicide drones, as you can see explosives are placed on the front of the drone. pic.twitter.com/88Jh8wAzsd
— Arslon Xudosi 🇺🇦 (@Arslon_Xudosi) April 24, 2022Warmate barrage ammunition was created by the Polish company WB Electronics and has been in service of Armed Forces and Territorial Defense of Poland since autumn 2017. Poland ordered 1,000 of such drones (100 sets of 10 drones each). In 2017, WB Electronics signed a contract with PJSC Chernihiv Radio Equipment Plant (CheZaRa), under which the Ukrainian side, at the request of the Ministry of Defense, created the Sokil unmanned aerial vehicle complex, which consists of a control complex and Warmate drones on the chassis of several Varta armored carriers. Unfortunately, due to the delay in the Varta test until the end of 2021, the test of the entire Sokil complex did not take place.
Warmate is a small drone that is launched from a pneumatic catapult and carries high-explosive, cumulative or thermobaric warheads weighing up to 1 kg. The drone attacks in a dive from a height of 150-300 m, which allows you to hit the equipment from above, in the least protected part. Warmate warheads are not enough to destroy tanks, although the cumulative flow, according to Defense.pl, burns up to 220 mm of armor. The main targets for this drone are staff vehicles, radar systems, SAM, MLRS and other important and lightly armored objects. Warmate is used in conjunction with the FlyEye UAV, which provides intelligence to the operator.
In terms of parameters, Warmate occupies an intermediate position between American kamikaze drones AeroVironment Switchblades 300 and Switchblades 600. But WB Electronics also has a more powerful version of the UAV - Warmate 2, which is launched from a catapult mounted on the car, is equipped with a thermal imager, has an automatic target capture system, automatic navigation at waypoints, and most importantly, greater takeoff weight, flight time and more powerful warhead (up to 5 kg), which is able to cope with the tank.
Unlike its younger brother, the Warmate 2 UAV has not yet been spotted in Ukraine. We hope that only for now. In any case, we wish our defenders a successful orc hunting.
Warmate UAV specifications
Range - 30 km
Speed - 80 km / h
Maximum speed during the attack - 150 km / h
Flight time - 70 minutes
Wingspan - 1.6 m
Length of the fuselage - 1.1 m
Maximum takeoff weight - 5.7 kg
Operating height 150 - 300 m
Maximum height - 500 m
Warhead type - high-explosive, cumulative, thermobaric
