Drone manufacturer Zala promotes “combat-efficient” Lancet drones in Dubai

Russia's large showing at the Dubai Airshow 2025 drew wide international attention. One example is drone manufacturer Zala, which presents a combination of reconnaissance and kamikaze drones as Lancet-E and calls it “combat-efficient”.

To underline this quality, the 4,000th video of a successful Lancet attack was posted online last week.

The catalogued videos show hits on over 1,070 towed guns, more than 600 self-propelled artillery pieces and over 500 main battle tanks, including more than 60 NATO systems. Added to this are more than 400 armoured personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, over 200 radar and communication installations and more than 80 each of multiple rocket launchers and air defence systems. It is not broken down how many Lancet loitering munitions this required.

Z-16E reconnaissance drone and two attack drones

An improved Zala Z-16E handles reconnaissance within the system. Machine vision algorithms are to let it detect, identify and track targets automatically. It is said to hold stable communication links over up to 50 kilometres, even under electronic jamming. The updated Z-16E has an endurance of up to 3.5 hours.

Two X-wing drones, designated Product 51E and Product 52E, take on the trio's attack role. The smaller kamikaze drone, Product 52E, has a range of 35 kilometres, while the larger Product 51E reaches up to 45 kilometres. Both attack drones can be fitted with different warheads as required: a shaped-charge warhead, a shaped charge with fragmentation effect, an explosively formed penetrator or a thermobaric warhead.

According to Russian media reports, the Zala drones have been demonstrated in more than ten countries and are said to have met with great interest from potential customers.

Drone manufacturer also shows T-20 and “Geokosmos”

The much larger T-20 reconnaissance drone is likely intended for the level above Lancet-E. Its stated figures: up to seven hours of flight time, a range of 500 kilometres and HD video transmission over more than 100 kilometres.

Zala is also presenting the “Geokosmos” system in Dubai. It is intended to fundamentally overcome the dependence of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) on satellite and mobile network links. The UAVs are then to operate reliably even without conventional communication and navigation channels.