APU for the first time shot down an experimental Russian drone "Merlin-VR", which was not helped by a silent engine

Volunteer Pavel Kashchuk Facebook published pictures of the Russian unmanned aerial vehicle "Merlin-VR" shot down by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

What is known

The reconnaissance UAV was introduced at the end of the third quarter of 2021. It probably hasn't even been adopted by the Russian army yet. At least, there were no such statements before. Although the development company from Smolensk noted that the drone was shown to representatives of the Russian Defense Ministry.

The drone is designed for aerial monitoring from a height of up to 5 km. The manufacturer claims that Merlin-VR is equipped with a hybrid engine that provides low acoustic visibility. As you can see, this did not help the drone.

In the list of advantages, the Russians attributed the ability to work in automatic mode and autonomy up to 10 hours. An unmanned aerial vehicle can (in our case could) carry up to 6.5 kg of payload. For example, optical-location stations in the visible and infrared range.

It is possible that soon we will see a short review of Merlin-VR. Judging by the photo, the state of the “stealth drone” allows this to be done.

Source: Pavel Kashchuk

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