DONETSK, February 19. /TASS/. Russian security forces intercepted a British kamikaze drone launched by the Ukrainian military to attack civilian infrastructure in the south of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the press office of the regional branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on Monday.
"The FSB branch for the DPR jointly with units of the military commandant’s office and the Russian National Guard intercepted a British Banshee Jet 80 kamikaze drone in the republic’s Novoazovsky district," the press office said in a statement.
The British drone carried 7 kg of explosives. After its controlled landing, bomb technicians defused the drone’s warhead and destroyed it on the spot, it said.
After deciphering the drone’s flight assignment, the FSB found that the UAV targeted a large civilian infrastructure facility in Mariupol. The unmanned aerial vehicle was intended to fly a circle over the Novoazovsky district and strike the facility from the Taganrog Bay, the press office specified.
The Banshee Jet 80 is a jet-powered drone produced by the British company QinetiQ and used by the UK Navy as an aerial target. According to the data posted on the company’s website, the drone can operate at a distance of over 100 km and accelerate to 720 km/h. In 2021, a Banshee drone was launched for the first time from the aircraft carrier Prince of Wales. The UK Navy reported that the drone could hardly be detected by a radar and thus it fit well for training a missile attack repulsion.