Russian Firm Develops 'Sparrow' 1.5kg FPV Drone to Strike Armored Vehicles

Russian specialists have crafted a 1.3-kilogram FPV drone called Vorobey (Sparrow) with a 500-gram munition payload for targeting armored vehicles.

Andrey Bratenkov, executive director of the Spektr engineering firm, told TASS that the drone, which carries a cumulative payload developed by a Russian research institute, had been successfully tested in in the special military operation zone.

Bratenkov said these drones will be deployed in combat in the near future, thus ensuring greater efficiency due to their lower mass and heightened effectiveness.

"The round of ordnance weighs about 500 grams and is capable of penetrating armor of up to 200 mm [thick]. As a result, in terms of its properties, the Vorobey drone turns out to be a mini-Lancet. The first batch of drones and ordnance has already been handed over for use in the special [military] operation zone," Bratenkov said. The drone weighs 1.3 kilos and has a maximum flight range of up to 5 kilometers.

The specialist named low cost and mass as the advantages of the new FPV drone. "Vorobey has turned out to have quite a ‘bite,’ because it can break through armored hardware. Its prime cost is much lower than that of the Lancet, about 150,000 rubles (about $1,500 - TASS). The drone is small and its length is about nine inches. One cannot drag a Lancet to the frontline on foot, while it is possible to carry about 10 Vorobey drones without any particular effort and the effectiveness is much greater this way," Bratenkov said.

The Spektr engineering firm, headquartered in Novosibirsk, develops and produces unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). As reported earlier, the company has provided its Yozhik (Hedgehog) ground drone to be used for reconnaissance purposes in the special military operation.