The Ukrainian military used Australian kamikaze drones SYPAQ for the first time, attacking the Khalino military airfield near Kursk and a military electronic warfare unit in the Kursk region on the night of August 27, writes the Mash telegram channel. In total, according to him, about 16 UAVs were launched, only some of them were filled with explosives, and most of them were used to distract air defense. The Russian telegram channel Fightbomber wrote that such drones are made of wax-impregnated paper and rubber bands and are practically invisible to detection systems.
And on the night of August 30, Ukrainian drones attacked Pskov . The Russian Ministry of Defense announced a drone strike in six Russian regions.
Ukrainian aviation expert Valery Romanenko told what kind of drones hit Pskov and what cardboard drones are.
– Tonight, an airfield in Pskov, 700 kilometers from Ukraine, was attacked. What got there? Cardboard drones too?
– Yes, God forbid. These drones, to be honest, are mainly designed to be responded to by the Russian air defense and launch expensive missiles at them, because this drone compared to Shahed is a LADA Kalina compared to Mercedes. That is, it was impossible to do anything simpler. There the wing is actually attached to the fuselage with rubber bands.
Other drones operate in Pskov. There is a whole series there: UJ-22s worked, Beavers worked. I think it’s these drones. Ukraine is currently developing a whole series of long-range drones, which quite successfully pass the air defense line and the electronic warfare line along the border and along the front line. So those that attacked Pskov are far from cardboard drones.
– It turns out that these drones flew 700 kilometers across Russian territory, probably along the border with Belarus, and Russian air defense could not notice them for 700 kilometers?
– It turns out that way. As a rule, these drones go at a fairly low altitude. There were just estimates for the height when the drones touched the trees. Now the height has been slightly increased, but these drones are still made of materials that reflect the radar signal extremely weakly. In addition, they do not leave a thermal footprint. It is quite difficult to detect them even at night with infrared devices or thermal imagers. It is difficult to detect them with all kinds of passive sensors – only visually. Therefore, they pass the air defense system at low altitude. Some, of course, fall apart. It is announced that the drones are going astray. But in any case, the cost of this drone is pennies compared to the cost of an anti-aircraft missile. And, as a rule, anti-aircraft missiles are fired at a target in pairs. Then the probability of shooting down increases to 90 percent.
– If we talk in more detail about Pskov, TASS is now writing about the damage to four Il-76 aircraft, RIA Novosti, with reference to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, writes that two aircraft were on fire. Are these transport aircraft? Judging by the footage, which I hope you also see, can we conclude what happened to the planes? Judging by the volume of the fire, they were destroyed?
“From the flames, it looks like jet fuel is on fire. It’s actually a plane crash. Aviation fuel burns with a slightly orange tint. But since here the entire gamma is shifted to red, then there is clearly an intense combustion of the fuel. Other materials do not burn as intensely.
The planes appear to have been destroyed – at least two are said to have been destroyed. And if they burn so well, then they definitely cannot be restored. As a rule, damage is when the plane does not start a fire. And planes at the airfield, as a rule, are refueled. And if there is a hit, if the plane is hit and a fire starts, then it burns out.
– Explain how it became possible that six regions in Russia were attacked today? As far as I understand, Sevastopol in the annexed Crimea was also attacked today. I understand that we are talking about more than 10 drones? How did these massive attacks become possible for the Ukrainian Armed Forces?
– Firstly, this is the answer to Shahed. Naturally, as soon as massive shelling of Ukrainian infrastructure facilities began, when the Russian military decided, as they say, to “drive Ukrainians into caves” – to destroy Ukrainian power plants and life support facilities – this caused a response. That is, there are now more than 200 drone manufacturers in Ukraine, which either provide ready-made drones, supply components for them, or assemble them from components. And now the production of long-range unmanned aerial vehicles in Ukraine has increased tenfold. In response to Russian drones, a huge number of drones, and attack drones with a significant explosive charge on board, will fly towards Russia. As they say, boomerang.
– It turns out that these drones, judging by the fact that they hit aircraft, are accurate enough?
– Yes, there is an obvious delivery system. I don’t know how communication with the operator is carried out, but there is either a direct connection with the operator, which is not realistic at 700 kilometers. The direct communication range is 200 kilometers. Or the coordinates of stationary aircraft are so clearly established that these drones can be guided using GPS with an accuracy of meters. Or images of aircraft are hardwired there, and the drone independently determines the target and brings it independently to the final section of the trajectory – at the terminal section.
– So, the use of cardboard drones to deceive air defense systems is also some kind of Ukrainian innovation?
– No, these are Australian-made drones. But the fact that they are used for strike purposes is already our modernization. Moreover, there are three types of such drones, but those that are used are two types of drones. What’s interesting: it is delivered to Ukraine in the form of packages measuring 76x51x5 centimeters. You can imagine how many thousands of them fit into a regular transport plane. That is, these are mass deliveries. To deliver it to the front line – you can even put two dozen of these bags in a jeep. The soldier assembles it without any tools in minimal time, programs it – there is a simple programming system.
This drone delivers the necessary materials to the forward unit – ammunition, medicine. Or you can hang the ammunition, and then it will be used as an attack drone, a kamikaze drone. The operator constantly monitors the space below him and, if he sees a target, clearly points the drone at the target.
– Could Russia start producing the same drones?
– Of course it can. But Russia is betting on quadrocopters. In Russia, production has always been difficult. Why are such cheap drones better than quadcopters? In the event that an EW interference is placed from an anti-drone gun, the quadcopter will not fly out of this interference, because it has a low horizontal speed. But such a drone will slip through this zone and fly further, and again it will be controlled, because the zone of destruction of the anti-drone gun is small.
Source : CURRENTTIME