Remote controlled or fully automatic drones have been an important help to Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia, which invaded the country. As the war has dragged on, the role of drones has grown even more, as Russia has also introduced various flying weapons.
As airplanes become more common, there has even been talk of a change in warfare.
for Ukraine drones have meant the ability to strike more and more far away, and news of Ukraine's drone attacks on Russia are becoming commonplace. For example, last Thursday, a Ukrainian source said according to news agency Reutersthat Ukraine had hit an oil refinery in the south of Russia with its drones.
Last summer, Ukrainian airplanes were seen in Moscow, and now Ukraine seems to be able to strike with its drones all the way to the shores of the Gulf of Finland. In January, Ukraine was said to have carried out drone attacks on ports important for Russian energy exports in St. Petersburg and Out of the blueknown to Russian speakers as Ust-Luga.
The range of the Ukrainian UJ-26 “Majava” airplane is said to be about a thousand kilometers.
After the attack on St. Petersburg on January 18, the minister responsible for the arms industry of Ukraine claimed that drones manufactured in Ukraine are capable of flying well over a thousand kilometers.
“We hit the target last night, and this device flew exactly 1,250 kilometers that night,” said Ukraine's Minister of Strategic Industry Oleksandr Kamyshin. He spoke at a panel discussion in Davos, Switzerland, said Ukrainian Interfax -news agency.
It is not known what type of drones were used in the recent attacks on the nearby areas of Finland and where the drones were sent from. If Kamyšin's claim is true, the attacks could very well have been carried out from Ukraine, because the Gulf of Finland is about 900 kilometers from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian UJ-22 aircraft is said to be capable of, among other things, reconnaissance missions, also under electronic jamming.
Ukraine during the war also used its airplanes to destroy Russian warships, for example. Last November, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy Dmytro Pletentchuk announced that Ukraine had destroyed a total of 15 ships and damaged 12 since the start of the Russian attack.
“All this was not the work of drones, but they have quite a lot of damaged ships on their account,” said Pletentšuk.
Already at the beginning of the war, the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB-2 combat aircraft became famous, with which Ukraine destroyed Russian targets such as vehicles, artillery positions and command posts. Since then, Russia has developed its air defense, and the use of the large and expensive Bayraktar has decreased.
At war various small airplanes, which are modified from ordinary civilian airplanes for a wide range of uses, have also become common. For example, so-called FPV airplanes intended for hobby use are equipped with homemade explosives and flown to targets, says, for example, an American think tank Council on Foreign Relations.
FPV airplanes have a camera and a radio connection, with which the user of the airplane can follow the image sent by the airplane a little as if he were on board. You can get such airplanes for about a couple of thousand euros, which is little compared to the prices of many other modern weapons.
Ukraine also has at its disposal small US Switchblade 300 drones designed for military use, which explode when they hit the target. They fit in a backpack and are launched from a portable launch tube intended for that purpose. Ukraine was also receiving larger Switchblade 600 drones last fall, which are capable of destroying, for example, a tank, said Kyiv Post in October.
“
Russia has also put drones into active use.
Although Russia's way of waging war in Ukraine has been considered quite traditional, and Russia has also put drones into active use. It has carried out devastating attacks on Ukraine, for example, with the Iranian-made Shaded-136 aircraft, of which Russia also has its own version called Geran-2.
There is also a Russian version of the Iranian Shahed-136 under the name Geran-2.
Zala Lancet-3 airplane.
On the battlefields, Russia has been deploying large quantities of, for example, Lancet drones since approximately the end of 2022. There are two versions of the aircraft, Lancet-1 and Lancet-3, the first of which is capable of carrying one kilogram and the second of three kilograms of explosives. It is a so-called self-destructing aircraft that approaches a target and explodes.
It is known that quite a few western parts have been used in the aircraft. Last November, the United States imposed sanctions on Zala Aero, the manufacturer of the Lancet and another Russian aircraft, the Kub-BLA. The company belongs to the Russian Kalashnikov Group.
#Airplanes #Weapons #drone #warfare #drones #Ukraine #Russia
