The Tu-141, despite its incredible age, is still flying. Although the art of switching toggle switches in the right direction, apparently, has already been lost by a new generation of operators.
On the night of March 11, an object fell in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, which was first called an unidentified aircraft. The press service of the Interior Ministry of this country stated that an explosion was heard during the incident. Several cars standing nearby were damaged, by a lucky chance there were no casualties.
Subsequent examination of the funnel showed that there are fragments of rather atypical dimensions and shapes in it — they even managed to see a red star on them — as well as fragments of two parachutes. As it became clear later, we are almost certainly talking about the remains of the Tu-141 "Strizh", a turbojet drone, the production of which was discontinued in the USSR in 1989. That is, the minimum age of the device is a third of a century, and perhaps even more. This is impressive, because normally combat aircraft do not have such a long life span without systematic repairs and modernization.
A funnel in Zagreb with elements of a fallen drone
Image source: RIA Novosti
The Tu-141 is a transonic drone with a cruising speed of about a thousand kilometers per hour and a flight range of about a thousand kilometers. Based on the distance to Zagreb, it could only be launched from Western Ukraine — it would not have been possible to fly from Kiev to the capital of Croatia. The drone does not have shock functions, and carries out reconnaissance with the help of photographic equipment. In addition to the visible, it can also observe in the IR range. However, the latter is not entirely clear: providing IR capabilities is more difficult, and whether these functions have been preserved in devices manufactured in the already distant Soviet era is not completely clear.
The editor of the magazine "Arsenal of the Fatherland" Alexey Leonkov, in a comment for RIA Novosti, noted that the probable reason why the Ukrainian drone suddenly began to "scout" the territory of a NATO country was an operator error. The fact is that, unlike modern drones, the Tu-141 flight program is set by turning about four dozen toggle switches. "One toggle switch was set wrong, and the Strizh will fly the wrong way and will not even return to base. The Strizh has no flight adjustments from GPS and other navigation systems," Leonkov explained.
Launch of the Tu-141 from the conveyor machine. The UAV does not have a chassis, so a solid-fuel accelerator accelerates it to the desired speed. Landing is with the help of parachutes / © YouTube
Most likely, this particular device was launched by the 321st separate squadron of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft based in the village of Raukhovka in the Berezovsky district of the Odessa region. In any case, it was not known about other units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that have such exotics before. According to reports from other countries, before that its flight was registered in Romania (according to other sources - in Hungary). The Ukrainian Embassy in Croatia declined to comment.
It remains a mystery why the device was not shot down by the air defense forces of the above countries, because its fall in a dense urban area could have resulted in human casualties.
As The Drive's journalist Tyler Rogoway notes, this "raises serious doubts about the readiness of NATO air defense countries." And indeed: the Tu-141 is more than 14 meters long, and its mass exceeds five tons. He doesn't have any stealth features, which is why it's relatively easy to disable him. On the eighth of March, a similar device was shot down over the territory of Ukraine itself.
