Russia’s air defense struggles to protect key targets against drone attacks – ISW

Russian forces are actively forming mobile fire groups to counter Ukrainian attack drones.

Yet they will struggle with deploing them on the required scale in the near future, ISW reports.

Enemy forces face the threat of Ukrainian drones both in the occupied territories and Russia at oil refineries, and other critical infrastructure facilities that support military efforts.

Russian troops plan to equip the new fire groups with thermal imagers, electronic warfare systems, and machine guns mounted on pickup trucks.

However, it is unclear whether these mobile groups will be able to protect the territory targeted by Ukrainian drones.

The description of Russian mobile fire groups is similar to Ukrainian tactical groups. Ukraine began deploying them en masse last spring to protect itself from regular attacks by Shahed-136/131 drones.

Russian troops are likely to have difficulty properly deploying short-range air defense systems along the expected flight vectors of Ukrainian drones.

A total of 15 drone attacks on 13 oil refineries in nine Russia's regions have already happened in 2024.