Ukraine needs to develop an autonomous interceptor drone like the Russian “Yolka”—but with a warhead! Ground units would then have a simple and effective defense against ubiquitous Russian “Molniya” strike UAVs in particular, with no trained operator required. 1/

The Yolka was developed by Russian civilians, where regulations prevented them from equipping it with a warhead. The interceptor relies solely on kinetic energy to damage the target UAV sufficiently—or even trigger the warhead of a strike UAV. 2/

Russian reconnaissance UAVs that locate Ukrainian targets would also no longer operate unmolested. Otherwise, these are only interdicted by special FPV interceptor units equipped with radar controllers, which cannot be everywhere along the vast front. 3/

Sources

Cheap manpads for targets of limited capability. A version without a warhead would also be useful in peace time use. Little danger even if the drone was lost. There's a number of good reasons for something like this, with and without a warhead.

Plenty of stuff to do r&d with. This is from yesterday

Yes, the biggest issue with interceptor drones (and most drones in Ukraine for that matter) in my view is the lack of autonomy. In theory if you had good enough autonomous guidance on the currently existing style of interceptor drones, the drone wouldn't even have to fly as fast as the target, since it could intercept it head-on, so you could use normal interceptor drones for faster jet-powered strike drones. Maybe even cruise missiles if you throw enough of them at it with enough advance warning and with a powerful enough warhead? The recent quadcopter-rocket hybrid seems interesting, too. In the testing they showed the rocket being used for launch, but I think with a rear-aspect intercept you'd want to use it slightly before the intercept so as not to bleed off all the speed.

Do they need them? Like I will do but do they need them?

Yes, they do.

Does Yolka have like a display or just a led when it's locked in to target?

@GrandpaRoy2 I think it's just a buzzer, like a manpads

@roman_koshchei Probably.

Why they do not use them at refineries?

It has no warhead, as it could fall on the operator's head or malfunction & take out ground vehicles

It certainly is much safer for the user with no warhead, but nonetheless some Russians will choose to add a warhead in due course. They have a different view of safety compared to the West.

Das hat die Ukraine doch schon, oder?

No, not a cheap fire-and-forget system like this that any soldier (not just a trained and experienced operator) can use.

Would think this would be adopted by Ukraine as it works well for infantry on the ground and doesn't require a bunch of gear to setup. Clever

Yes, and especially that it doesn’t need a trained operator to fly it.

I'd assum you would need to be very close, given the need for aiming and limited range?

3 km maximum range, though of course limited to what you can see and what the device can lock onto.

Why? Are JEDI Shahed Hunter and Sting not enough?

Sting requires highly trained and experienced operators to fly them, JEDI also requires multiple ground crew and coordination with radar controllers. Their specifications for maximum speed and range are much more demanding, resulting in a significantly higher cost.