UAVs attacked a US base in Baghdad, destroying Sentinel radar and Black Hawk helicopters.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq released a video showing an FPV drone attacking Victoria Air Base, destroying an AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar system and a UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) has released video footage of a suicide drone attack on the US military base at Victoria, located on the outskirts of Baghdad. The attack directly damaged US military defense systems and aircraft in the area.
Details of equipment damage at Victoria Air Base
According to information from a video shared online by IRI, the FPV drone approached its target without encountering any obstacles from the base's defense system. After circling to determine its location, the vehicle then crashed into and destroyed an AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel multi-mission radar and a UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter belonging to the United States.
The AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar is a crucial component of the short-range air defense system, responsible for detecting and tracking low-flying targets such as UAVs, cruise missiles, and helicopters. The disabling of this system poses a significant challenge to the base's early warning capabilities against airborne threats.
Questions raised about the effectiveness of electronic warfare systems.
Notably, the video shows the suicide drone not encountering any electronic countermeasures from the soldiers at the base. This leads to two technical hypotheses: either Victoria Air Base currently lacks an effective electronic warfare (EW) system, or the militia used a fiber optic-controlled drone.
Fiber optic control technology makes UAVs completely immune to conventional radio jamming devices, allowing operators to maintain stable video links until the moment of impact. This is considered an alarming sign for the US, highlighting the potential damage if tensions continue to escalate in the region.
The context of escalating attacks.
This is not the first time Victoria Air Force Base has been targeted. Previously, on March 15th, a similar drone attack was recorded, damaging some military equipment. The repetition of these incidents highlights significant security vulnerabilities at fixed military facilities in the face of the development of inexpensive drone technology.
