Ukraine claimed that its forces destroyed nearly 50 Russian tanks in one day, as Russia tried to capture Avdiivka, a small city in the east of the country.
The Ukrainian General Staff said that in one day of fighting, nearly 900 Russians were killed and 100 units of their armored equipment were also destroyed.
A video shared by Ukraine’s military on Friday appeared to show Russian tanks and armor being destroyed as they headed towards the eastern Ukrainian city.
Human beings are expensive - munitions are relatively cheap. A suicide drone is probably around 20k - 20k for an enemy casualty is a bargain in modern wars.
The suicide FPV drones they are using are a few hundred to a thousand dollars. The recon/grenade-dropping drones, depending on model, get that expensive.
And that’s exactly why Ukraine is kicking ass. Paying $20k or $30k for a single enemy casualty is a pretty good deal in warfare. But these drones aren’t going through some huge defense contractor, they’re being 3D printed and assembled from off-the-shelf parts. Basically a little army of logistics people building hobby drones out of consumer level equipment, just with an improvised explosive like a grenade or some similar impact explosive strapped to the bottom.
They aren’t even paying $20k for a casualty, they are paying $1-2k for a hobby drone and a grenade and many of them create multiple casualties.
The more expensive ones cost more, but those are the ones you see that are reusable and can drop several grenades in one flight. Those are more like $5k-$20k. Still an insane bargain even if each one only creates one casualty before it is destroyed.