Kalashnikov Just Unveiled an Explosive-Laden Kamikaze Drone

Kalashnikov has demonstrated a new type of suicide drone it believes could revolutionize warfare by making sophisticated drone technology cheap, effective, and widely available. That’s an ominous goal in any context, but particularly from a company with Kalashnikov’s history. The AK-47 remains one of the most popular firearms in the world, some seven decades after the design first debuted. While not particularly accurate, the design is legendary for being cheap and reliable. Kalashnikov wants to capture these traits in a platform with significantly higher destructive potential.

According to the Washington Post, the new drone — formally titled the KUB-UAV, is intended to be cheap, simple, and easy to operate. It has an endurance of 30 minutes, speeds of 80-130km/h (48-78mph) and can carry a 3kg (6.6-pound) payload to the target. The quote below is provided from Kalashnikov, via Google Translate:

“This complex is a step towards a completely new combat operations. We confidently keep in the forefront among the countries producing such weapons, ”said Sergey Chemezov, Rostec CEO. “High-precision unmanned projectile flies up to 30 minutes at a speed of 130 km per hour. The charge on this complex is delivered to the target, regardless of its secrecy and terrain, both small and at high altitudes. This is a very accurate and most effective weapon that is very difficult to fight with using traditional air defense systems.”

A six-pound payload might not mean much to a tank or fortified installation, but it’s more than enough to kill civilians, civilian vehicles, infantry, and unprotected targets. According to the WP, Kalashnikov representatives at a major defense exhibit in Abu Dhabi declared that the drone would be faster, more accurate, deliver twice the explosive charge, and operate over longer ranges than any of the relatively crude suicide drone squads that have been used to date. Last year, Russian troops in Syria were struck by crudely manufactured drones in such an attack. Kalashnikov wants to create far better weapons towards the same goal.

The KUB will reportedly be “very cheap” and will target smaller armies around the world as its primary customers. The US has explored its own suicide drone concepts, but Kalashnikov’s KUB is believed to be targeting a far lower price point and more limited capabilities than the relatively expensive, higher-end craft typically fielded by the US military or by other first-world nations.

This kind of development, while unwelcome, is probably also inevitable. The combat capabilities of remote aircraft have been imagined for decades; military planners have long drooled over the idea of how fighters and bombers might perform if liberated from the need to protect a fragile human. A fleet of low-cost micro-bombers might not be much use against a tank invasion, but one of the hallmarks of global conflict in the post-WW2 era has been the rise of intra-state warfare — civil wars, popular unrest, and similar activities — as opposed to the kinds of invasions and mass mobilizations we think of when we think about the world wars. In short, weapons like the KUB-UAV will undoubtedly find a home in the arsenals of various countries, particularly as the technology continues to improve.