Images appeared on social media yesterday showing what is said to be the wreckage of a drone that was used in last week’s attack on the Armavir early warning radar station in Russia’s Krasnodar region. The wreckage has been identified not as a Ukrainian- made drone but as a Portuguese-made drone called a Tekever AR3. Portugal is a member of NATO, so the matter is of great significance.
According to the manufacturer, the AR3 is a small, long-endurance UAS (unmanned aerial system) designed to support a wide range of demanding land and maritime operations that has a flight endurance of from 8 to 16 hours.
According to one X/twitter posting, the drone had been shot down over Armavir, itself, and had been converted into a one-way attack drone. “This is a direct use of Western weapons to attack the strategic nuclear forces of the Russian Federation!” the poster, who goes by the handle Lord Bebo, wrote.
