Steve Jobs one said that “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”
The video above is the first public video of a Sudanese Army drone dropping a munition on RSF (Rapid Support Forces) militia.
Sudan currently operates a mixed fleet of Chinese and Iranian drones.
Namely the Iranian Ababil-3.
And Iranian Mohajer series
And Chinese Rainbow CH-3 and CH-4 drones.
But the video above is the first time I’ve seen an armed Copter type drone in use by the Sudanese Army.
A few interesting things:
I believe that the dropped munition is a Chinese 82mm Type 53 mortar round.
Which in according to CAT-UXO is in use by Sudan.
This mortar shell weights 3.160 kg or 6.967 lbs.
So it is significantly heavier than the 30mm 0.276 kg / 0.608 lbs VOG-17 grenade we so often see used in Ukraine.
It takes the mortar roughly 10 seconds to fall and impact, so I estimate that the drone was 348 meters or 1141 feet in the air. The weight of the munition and the height of the drop indicate that this may be a commercial drone.
I can see governments using this weapon against insurgent forces, especially in environments where the adversary does not have electronic warfare capabilities.
It can also be used to complement air forces in environments that are contested with MANPADS (man portable air defense).
The good news is that this is a little more surgical than plastering the area with Grad rockets or blasting it with artillery. The bad news is that we can’t put the genie back in the bottle. If a government can use this technology, a terrorist or lone wolf with an axe to grind against the system can do so as well.
Companies that make RF countermeasures and acoustic or radar detection devices may play an important part in the future protecting forces from these cheap and simple delivery systems.
