This is still mediocre. Meanwhile iran is actually producing more MALE drones. If russia can't produce more than half a dozen drones per year, it should buy from iran, or at least outsource production of piston engines to iran.
I can understand why Kiev needs thousands of drones... because they lose them as fast as they are using them, but Russian drones don't seem to be getting massacred like Orc drones are... or they would be showing endless footage of their success.
Another factor is that having thousands of drones means having thousands of drone support vehicles and staff in a combat zone... how many do you think they can have before they become vulnerable to direct attack?
They don't need blanket coverage of all of the Ukraine.... no country has ever managed that... even much vaunted HATO didn't have enough eyes in the air to prevent IEDS being set or ambush attacks being made by enemy forces.
I think you massively over estimate the effect of having more drones would have and seem to think they don't have enough... which seems to be based on the views of other internet warrior commentators.
Of course it's obvious that this is an ad-hoc modification and the grenades will only tickle the heels of enemy soldiers.
This bomb arrangement is not intended to make Su-25s redundant or Su-34s for that matter... but as shown in the video of the M777 attack... it managed to stop an M777 battery from firing and made them move on and take cover while counter battery fire was organised and used... with the drone far more use finding the enemy forces and getting them to bug out and then following them to where they thought they could wait it out and to observe the strike on their position to allow corrections to make it effective... without the bombs they would have had to deal with them out in the open but would have less time to prepare for the counter artillery attack. By forcing them to bug out they eliminated the immediate threat of the shelling by the enemy and also gave the Russian artillery the time to prepare suitable rounds for the job... airburst for out in the open but impact fuses for inside a forest where imacts on trees and branches create an airburst effect.
But they can come up with a better suited UAV and munition in the same class by analyzing the data from these missions and determining how the set-up can be improved.
That munition looks like a 40mm grenade but would not need the propellent section or primer, which is covered by the plastic fins, but it would need different safety fuses including a pin safety and impact fuse.
Normal 40mm grenades require the shock and acceleration and spin of firing to arm the fuses so they don't explode if you just drop them or bump them if they are in a bag you are carrying and you dive onto the ground or fall. A pin safety attached to the plane so as the grenade falls the pin is pulled and the fuse is armed is a normal way of doing it.
Would be interesting to see if the new 57mm grenade launcher/gun grenades might be used for the same thing as it would have rather more HE and be in mass production so relatively cheap and available.
At the moment they are trialing the Orion in the conflict. Again, this may not end up as the final model adopted. Almost certainly not in fact. There will be new iterations and other drone models and manufacturers will incorporate lessons learned into their own offerings
They had drones in Syria launching Kornets so its capacity to hunt targets like artillery vehicles like 2S1 or 2S3 or Grad vehicles is rather good... they have a range of different weapons as shown at arms shows including bombs and guided missiles.
The thermite is wonderful at burning metals and 3 or 4 grenades like the ones above used by orlan would burn easily a tank and touch vital parts.
So what I concluded is that using it isn't easy but if you manage to use it then the result is very good.
Once burning it can burn through all sorts of different materials, but shaped charge warheads and self forging fragment warheads punch through too and are much faster and possibly lighter... requiring less material.
One of the reasons the axis lost was lack of technical cooperation. Russia and iran should definitely cooperate
You do understand that the Russians are killing the Orcs as fast as they can and a few extra drones is not going to make a huge difference.
The number of enemy targets a drone can kill is rather less than the number a Ka-52 or Mi-28 or Su-25 can kill, and their sensors are far better too.
No one fears shooting at a drone, but shooting at Hokums and Havocs and Su-25s can be hazardous to your health...
Drones for Russia is more about finding Orcs than about killing them... they have air power and artillery.... that is more than enough to deal with the targets they find.... they don't need a lot of Kamikazi drones or murder bots as used in the west.
They can buy motors from China and the can buy drones from Iran... but would you buy new equipment and then send it to war without testing it inside and out?
Anything they bought would not be delivered for a month or more and 5 to 6 months to test it and train with it... why bother...
Makes more sense to increase production of their own stuff and test and train with that.