Russia used record-high number of drones to attack Ukraine in September

The Russian military launched a record-high number of Shahed-136 kamikaze drones to strike targets in Ukraine in September 2023, Ukraine’s Defense Express outlet reported on Monday.

The experts calculated that Russia launched a total of 503 drones in September, compared to 413 in May, 197 in June, 246 in July, and 167 in August.

Ukraine’s air defences downed 396 drones in September, with the average number of destroyed targets standing at 78.7%. The air demonstrated almost 100% efficiency rates when Russia launched fewer than 20 drones at once.

The outlet noted that although the price of drones that Russia purchases from Iran is unclear, each drone is estimated to cost between $20,000 and $40,000. Taking these estimates into account, the Kremlin may have paid from $10 million to $20 million for the September attacks on Ukraine.

The US previously agreed to supply AIM-120 air defence missiles to Ukraine, with each missile estimated at $1.3 million. It would have cost Ukraine up to $654 million to defend itself against every launched drone in September, Defense Express estimates.

Defense Express notes that Moscow has long calculated this disparity in costs of launching drones and launching missiles to down them and “will obviously scale up these strikes, using the tactic of concentrating a large number of Shahed-136s in one salvo and constantly changing the direction of the strikes”.