For several weeks now, Russia has been firing at the Odessa region with a new drone system called Banderol (-> current news from the Ukraine war). Until now, it was only known that the system has a jet engine and flies at speeds between 400 and 500 km/h – further details were missing. Now, however, the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has published more comprehensive information on the new Russian cruise missile for the first time.

The developer of the cruise missile is the Russian drone manufacturer Kronstadt, which also produces the Orion MALE drones. The S8000 Banderol was demonstrated publicly for the first time on April 26, when the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, visited the Kapustin Yar test site in the Astrakhan region.

Electronics from Banderol - ©War Sanctions
Russia has put a lot of effort into developing satellite navigation receivers that are increasingly resistant to interference. Controlled Reception Pattern Antennas (CRPA) such as the Kometa-M8 can withstand higher interference levels than conventional receivers.

Technical features

Banderol is equipped with a warhead weighing up to 150 kilograms. The cruise missile can cover distances of up to 500 kilometers at a cruising speed of 520 to 560 km/h and a top speed of 620 to 650 km/h. Kerosene is used as fuel. Kerosene is used as fuel. Banderol is around five meters long and has a fuselage with stealth elements. The retractable wing has a span of 2.2 meters. It is powered by a SW800Pro-A95 turbojet engine with a weight of 8.5 kilograms and a thrust of 80 kilograms.

©Military News

The engine from Chinese manufacturer Swiwin Turbine & Jets is freely available via well-known Chinese trading platforms and costs around 35,000 to 40,000 euros. The fuel supply is estimated at 50 to 65 kilograms.

A special feature of the cruise missile is its ability to fly curves with a tighter radius than typical Russian-made cruise missiles (X-101, 3M-14, 9M727, X-69) – while still maintaining the characteristic trajectory of a cruise missile.

Banderol will be launched from the Orion MALE drone. The Mil Mi-28N combat helicopter is mentioned as another possible carrier system. However, fighter aircraft are ruled out as carriers due to the weak structure of the cruise missile.

Kronstadt Orion with Banderol cruise missile - ©Archive
The Kronstadt Orion is 8m long and can carry a payload of 250kg. The drone for medium altitudes was identified as a carrier system for Banderol (circle).

Western components despite sanctions

The GUR was able to identify a large number of non-Russian components: an Australian-made RFD900x telemetry module or its Chinese copy; an inertial navigation system, presumably of Chinese origin; Murata batteries from Japan; Dynamixel MX-64AR servo drives from the South Korean company Robotis; an interference-protected Comet-M8 GNSS antenna from the Russian manufacturer VNIIR-Progress; and almost two dozen microchips from American, Chinese, Swiss, Japanese and South Korean manufacturers.

Luftzielschießen am Truppenübungsplatz Allentsteig

The number of identified components reported on the reported on the War Sanctions platformsuggests that Ukraine has now recovered sufficient components from downed or crashed Banderol cruise missiles.

Here to our drone topic area with all the latest news on the subject.

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