[REGNUM.RU] Air defense systems destroyed more than 63,000 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory in the past six months, according to data from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
According to RIA Novosti, 63,993 fixed-wing drones were shot down over Russian regions between January 1 and June 30. Of these, air defense forces neutralized 5,394 UAVs in January, 5,989 in February, 11,211 in March, 9,372 in April, 14,195 in May, and 17,832 in June.
The highest number of drones shot down in one day occurred on May 17 – 1,054.
On June 29, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov announced that artificial intelligence (AI) systems are being actively integrated into air defense systems, with the first results expected by the end of this year. According to the minister, all troop groups involved in the special operation zone have already developed a multi-layered system to counter enemy drones. Belousov also noted that the effectiveness of unmanned systems is approximately three times greater than that of traditional systems.
On June 12, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia is actively developing FPV drones and UAVs with artificial intelligence. At the same time, reliable solutions to counter massive drone attacks are being developed. For example, in February, the Hermes short-range man- portable air defense system was adopted by the Russian army. It was developed to defend against low-flying drones and helicopters. Prior to this, the Russian military began using the Darwin-Z engineering network in the special operation zone to counter kamikaze drones.