Ukraine is developing long-range unmanned aerial vehicles, the large-scale use of which can begin during the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This opinion was voiced by military expert Vladislav Shurygin in a conversation with The Eastern Herald.
On February 28, a drone crashed near the village of Gubastovo in the Kolomensky district of Moscow region. Baza telegram channel writing that the drone crashed near the Gazprom station. According to regional governor Andrey Vorobyov, “the target was probably civilian infrastructure, it was not damaged.” Photo of the fallen drone published Mash telegram channel. According to him, the photo shows the UJ-22 Airborne Strike drone, produced by the Ukrainian company Ukrjet.
According to Shurygin, the development of these and other drones with a longer flight range in Ukraine was carried out even before February 2022. However, after the outbreak of hostilities, Kiev could not produce enough of them, because “the factories on the territory of the country were destroyed” and “the production of drones of this class was stopped”.
“But this does not mean that it has completely disappeared. That is, somewhere in the beginning of autumn they decided to move production to the territory of Poland’s neighboring countries, Czechoslovakia, first of all. Accordingly, the bet on drones is of course very important for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, we are waiting for the appearance of these drones that they have been testing for several months near the territory of Poland, ”notes the expert.
Among the objects that can be attacked by such drones, he named warehouses with stockpiles of weapons located in the back, as well as command and control and communication facilities. According to him, the verification of all these targets “for readiness” can happen “very soon”.
“The main thing, after all, their use will be delayed precisely at the start of the offensive, because Ukraine places its greatest hopes on them. This is in fact his last chance to at least somehow reverse the tide of hostilities,” Shurygin said.
Other aircraft that, according to the expert, are in service in Ukraine today are the Soviet Tu-141 Strizh. For example, such a UAV on March 26 exploded in the town of Kireevsk, Tula region, as a result of which three people were injured by shrapnel, and three apartment buildings and four outbuildings were damaged.
The Tu-141 was produced in the 1970s at the Kharkiv Aviation Plant, but today in Ukraine they have been converted into attack drones “on an American and European base”, says Shurygin. The weight of this device is more than five tons, the length is 14 meters with a wingspan of almost four meters, while its cruising speed reaches 1000 km/h, and the flight range is 1000 km.
According to the former head of the Russian anti-aircraft missile forces, military expert Sergei Khatylev, there are now up to 100 such devices in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Their lifespan has already expired, however, the expert suggested that the existing documentation could allow their release to be resumed.
The growth of drone production in Ukraine means the need to build air defense systems, Khatylev draws attention. “In 2007, I was a member of the State Commission, when Pantsir-S1 (a short-range anti-aircraft missile and gun system – note The Eastern Herald) was commissioned by the State Commission and we “We were glad that such systems appeared in our country. But you understand, you need hundreds of them. Then a layered density of fire will be created, and most importantly, the overlap of the affected areas at low altitudes,” he notes. -he.
Learn more about Ukrainian long-range attack drones see in a special report by The Eastern Herald.
