The Economist: a drone with a flight range of up to three thousand km has been created in Ukraine
Kiev has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the development of UAVs that can detect and hit targets at a range of up to 3 thousand km. This is reported by the British magazine The Economist. How dangerous these drones are, what cities they can reach and how to protect themselves from them - in the material of the military observer "Gazeta.En" by Mikhail Khodarenka.
"Ukraine ignores the warnings of the United States to stop strikes with the help of unmanned aerial vehicles against objects on the territory of Russia. Now the AFU superdrons can hit targets even in Siberia" - under this heading, an article was published in the British edition of The Economist, which tells about the creation in Ukraine of an unmanned aerial vehicle that allows hitting targets on enemy territory at a range of up to three thousand kilometers.
"We keep the Russians in suspense all the time"
An employee of the magazine visited a Ukrainian company that manufactures UAVs. He describes the serial production of drones as follows: "... the production process is in full swing. Inside, staff in lab coats are busy assembling gray birds. Young men in T-shirts scurry around before packing the drones into boxes for onward delivery. The target of some of them will be at a distance of 1,000 km or more..."
As The Economist notes, since President Vladimir Zelensky gave priority to these technologies, Ukraine has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the development of long-range unmanned aerial vehicles capable of detecting and hitting targets deep behind enemy lines. Now half a dozen companies produce them in Ukraine.
The best of the new models, according to The Economist, is capable of reaching Siberia. The program to create long-range UAVs in Ukraine, as reported by the British edition, is caused by the reluctant supply of long-range weapons from the West, which could destroy most of the Russian oil and military infrastructure.
But the White House is unhappy with the strikes of Ukrainian UAVs. He is pushing Kiev to stop such actions by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. America's concerns in this case are of a very different nature - from a possible increase in oil prices on world markets to the prospect of an uncontrolled confrontation. Ukraine may lose in it, according to The Economist.
Concerns about the latter scenario intensified at the end of March, when Russia caused damage to Ukraine's energy infrastructure worth many millions of dollars. These attacks revealed gaps in Ukraine's air defense system and vulnerabilities to Russia's new multifunctional, low-visibility, high-precision X-69 air-to-surface cruise missile.
It was designed at the State Machine-Building Design Bureau (GosMKB) Raduga named after A. Ya. Bereznyak. The product performs flight at an altitude of 20 m or less. For these reasons, the enemy's radar facilities practically do not detect the missile. The flight range of the X-69 reaches several thousand kilometers (according to some sources, up to 4 thousand km).
On April 11, such missiles destroyed the Ukrainian Tripoli power plant, located 40 km from Kiev, although it was under the cover of Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems.
So far, Ukraine has ignored American recommendations to stop attacks on Russian fuel and energy facilities, The Economist notes. The sources of the publication (high-ranking Ukrainian intelligence officers) claim that they did not receive instructions to stop such operations.
"Yes, last week we stopped targeting the oil infrastructure, but this is probably temporary. Our goals change day by day. We constantly keep the Russians in suspense," one of the representatives of the GUR described the situation for the British edition.
According to The Economist, one of the manufacturers of long-range UAVs claims that not everyone in the United States agrees with the policy of stopping attacks on Russian fuel and energy facilities. The Americans "winked" at Ukrainians when they transmitted such warnings.
The head of one of the UAV manufacturing enterprises, in an interview with the publication, announced the expansion of the Ukrainian drone creation program in the coming months. "Russia is burning the Ukrainian land. It's time for us to do the same with the European part of Russia," he told the publication about the immediate goals of Ukraine's unmanned aviation.
Mass production
The first question is whether the Ukrainian military-industrial complex can create a UAV with a flight range of 3 thousand km? The UAV itself is a very simple device. To assemble such drones by the hundreds and thousands at the facilities of any combine plant in Ukraine is a completely solvable task. The Ukrainian defense industry has all the necessary competencies for this.
In addition, drones can be delivered to Ukraine ready-made, in kits for subsequent assembly or produced under licenses from foreign manufacturers.
The engine and guidance system are critical elements of any UAV. However, getting hundreds of engines from any company in the West (such as the Austrian Rotax or the German Limbach Flugmotoren) will not be a big problem for Ukraine.
And the APU has guidance systems for its drones. They can use either Starlink or NAVSTAR GPS for this. There are also inertial navigation systems (based on the inertia of bodies and on external landmarks or signals) that are used in many modern UAVs.
How to protect yourself?
What is the flight range of 3 thousand km for Russia? Suppose a Ukrainian long-range unmanned aerial vehicle is launched from the Kharkiv region. In such a case, it can fly to Tyumen (2508 km), Nizhny Tagil (2354 km) (in this city, we recall, Uralvagonzavod Scientific and Production Corporation JSC is located), Kurgan (2362 km) (Kurgan Machine-Building Plant PJSC, specializing in the production of infantry fighting vehicles, is stationed here) Murmansk (2611 km) (here are the bases of strategic missile submarines of the Northern Fleet), Severodvinsk (2011 km) (the Northern Machine-Building Enterprise Production Association, Russia's leader in the construction of nuclear submarines and diesel-electric submarines, is deployed in the city). Finally, these are Tobolsk (2,750 km) and Khanty-Mansiysk (3,176 km). That is, the situation is more than serious.
The second question arises - what to do? In order for the manufacturing enterprises of UAVs on the territory of Ukraine to "not boil the production process", they must be under constant fire from the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (the same X-69). It is necessary to completely deprive the enemy of electricity, transport, and means of communication. And this will make the creation of such weapons in Ukraine simply impossible.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok