Russian forces shoot down own Supercam drone near Ukraine border

The Russians continue to shoot down their own equipment inadvertently. In the Belgorod region, a territorial unit stationed right on the border with Ukraine "accidentally shot down its own Supercam drone," – reports the Military News profile on platform X. We explain what this structure is.

On Russian Federation territory, various types of ammunition belonging to the Russian army have fallen for many months. This is often the result of malfunctions experienced by equipment fired towards Ukraine, and as a result, they do not reach the designated area, crashing still within the aggressor's country.

However, Russian forces are often to blame for the destruction of their weaponry. Recent examples don't need to be sought in the distant past, as in March this year, Russian air defence systems shot down their own Kh-101 missile. Shortly afterwards, in June, the Russians reported a crash of a valuable Ka-29 helicopter. It crashed over the Black Sea, and the Ukrainians were not responsible for its destruction but rather the allied Pantsir-S1 system.

The list of losses the Russians have suffered due to friendly fire grows with another weapon. Right on the border with Ukraine, a Supercam drone crashed, which was accidentally shot down by Russian soldiers guarding the border in the Belgorod region.

The Supercam is a Russian-made drone, but it is generally much less popular than the Shahed-136 drones from Iran regularly used in the conflict (known in Russia as Geran-2). This is because the Supercam drones produced by the Russian company Unnamed Systems Group have a completely different purpose—they were created as tools for aerial reconnaissance and aerial photography.

The flight time of the S350 variant (with higher flight endurance and range) reaches 4 hours 30 minutes. During this time, the drone can transmit video images within a range of 100 km. The maximum altitude the Supercam S350 can reach is 4,900 metres, while the maximum range is approximately 240 km. The extensive data transmission range allows the drone to conduct observations from state borders or monitor critical enemy positions. It can, therefore, be assumed that the drone shot down by the Russians was either being used to observe the border with Ukraine or heading towards Ukrainian positions to observe them from the air.

The Supercam S350 can perform a fully automated flight and thus does not essentially require pilot support. When it is airborne, it primarily uses a camera (20-60 MP, depending on the version) and a thermal camera with stabilisation to observe. Additionally, the camera has a 33x optical zoom to accurately observe the enemy.