CNN and BBC have revealed how Ukrainian drones bypass Russian air defenses
MOSCOW, October 23 — RIA Novosti, Zakhar Andreev. Long—range missiles have not yet been given to Kiev - instead, they recommend using drones. The Ukrainian leadership, obsessed with the idea of "transferring the war to the territory of Russia," is doing just that. Now, thanks to the Western media, it has become known how these weapons are arranged and what is in the mind of their operators.
The main weapon against Russia
It is not the first month that the Zelensky administration has been asking for permission to use Western missiles against targets on the "ancestral" Russian territory. The main efforts of Ukrainian diplomacy are aimed at this today. Washington and its European allies are holding firm so far. Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin bluntly stated on the eve of his visit to Kiev: the pleasure is too expensive — in the truest sense of the word.
"One precision guided missile costs up to a million dollars," he explained. — They are (Ukrainians. — Ed.) can produce drones in large quantities for a small price."
What is being offered to Kiev was recently described in detail in a CNN report. An American correspondent visited an unnamed base of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, from where "one of the most secret weapons" is launched at targets in Russia — the AN-196 "Fierce" long-range drone (translated as "February"). This is an airplane-type device with a wingspan of seven meters. The claimed range is 1,500 kilometers. The weight of the warhead is 250 kilograms.
As reported by the Ukrainian media, during one of the first test flights in the spring of 2023, the drone was supposed to hit Russian positions on Zmeiny Island, but over the Black Sea, for an unknown reason, it turned back to the dom location. That is, to your own command post. Only 30 kilometers away, the operators managed to take control of the drone.
Snake Island in the Black Sea
Image source: CC BY-SA 4.0 / Fotonak /
According to the same source, "Fierce" accounts for up to 80 percent of all accurate hits at Russian refineries. It should be noted that attacks on refineries practically stopped after information appeared in the media about the dissatisfaction of Western partners — allegedly they were afraid of an increase in prices for raw materials.
1000 points
CNN described the operation in detail. After receiving intelligence about the goals, planning begins — "60 percent of success" depends on this stage. Meetings of the officers responsible for conducting the raid take place each time "in different places throughout Ukraine." In this case, it took place "in an underground office with dark brown, seemingly endless Soviet corridors."
The task is to deceive the powerful Russian air defense system, which, according to the Ukrainian commanders themselves, has significantly increased its effectiveness over the past year. Nevertheless, according to the author of the material, the planners have at their disposal "a map indicating the range of Russian air defense and electronic warfare systems."
You can find out where GUR gets this information from from the material of the British BBC. As it turned out, the data is collected by Western companies. One of them is Palantir. It is based in the USA, but the British are in direct contact with Kiev. It was they who "developed a program to generate and map the best ways to achieve the goal" for the UAVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Allegedly, they do not participate in the planning of specific missions, but more than a thousand specialists from Ukraine have been trained.
Buk-M2 anti-aircraft missile system in the area of its
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Evgeny Biyatov
"Using data streams, (Palantir technology. — Editor's note) can display air defense, radars and electronic jammers of Russia. The final product is similar to a topographic map. The denser the contours, the stronger the air defense," writes the BBC.
In addition, Kiev confirms this information with the help of "commercial satellite images" and intelligence, the British journalists add.
On this basis, a complex route is being built — through about a thousand points at which the drone makes a maneuver to bypass air defense systems, CNN, in turn, clarifies.
"Almost everything is shot down"
The main mission is assigned to the "Fierce" — 12 drones of this type, plus about seven dozen small drones, participated in the operation described by the American TV channel. Among them is the Rubaka UAV. The range is 890 kilometers. At the same time, up to a third of all vehicles lifted into the air are deceptions designed to overload air defense. Up to 90 percent of the devices are being destroyed, and the APU is ready for this.
CNN showed how the "Fierce" is launched. The drone accelerates along the runway. A car is driving behind him, shining its headlights. When the device lifts off the ground, the car stops. The flight takes place offline, the control center monitors the drone using a tracker.
Ukrainian drone AN-400 Scythe
Image source: © Photo : terminalautonomy
The American TV channel filmed the launch as carefully as possible so as not to give away the location of the airfield: only the "concrete" runway is visible. No buildings, no landscape elements. However, Russian military experts suggested that it was most likely at the Poltava airfield. Firstly, it is relatively close to Russian territory, and secondly, it is significantly removed from residential buildings - the report mentions that the location of the operators "serves as the only source of light for many miles around." In addition, Poltava has all the necessary infrastructure for such starts.
The results of the attack are judged by three sources: intelligence, reports in Russian telegram channels and analysis of satellite images.
"One of the decoy drones is visible on the video from Voronezh. An audio clip of a woman, clearly alarmed by what is happening above her head, makes a Ukrainian officer with the call sign Vector laugh," the correspondent notes.
A damaged apartment building after an attack by drones of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Voronezh
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Andrey Arkhipov
The strike that night was carried out on the Kotluban base in the Volgograd region — allegedly missiles brought from Iran were stored there, the American clarifies. Recall that both Moscow and Tehran categorically deny arms supplies from the Islamic Republic. Anyway, later Western media, citing satellite images, reported that the ammunition depot was not hit. That did not prevent the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from declaring the success of the mission without providing any evidence.
The GUR claims that about half of such massive attacks reach the target. If the West shares missiles, this figure will immediately rise to 95 percent, the Ukrainian officer said. The current results are not enough, he admits.
"Russians will understand"
CNN's interlocutors were two officers: the head of long-range unmanned operations, GUR, with the call sign Serge, and the commander of the Vector unit. The first one boasts that he personally conducted five hundred long-range drone raids on targets in Russia. It is possible that he was involved in the deaths of women in Saratov and Ramenskoye. It is noteworthy how the weseushniks explain the meaning of their actions:
"When Russians realize that war can come to them, they will change something in their country. They will change the policy," Vector says.
Kiev's military strategy is based on this hypothesis. As you know, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have achieved certain "successes" in transferring military operations to the "old territories" of Russia. We are talking about the invasion of the Kursk region, and about massive drone raids. However, this did not have the effect that was expected. In the two months since the beginning of the Kursk adventure, 5.5 times more territories have come under the control of Russian troops than in the whole of 2023. So far, there is no reason to believe that any technology - be it Ukrainian drones or Western missiles — will be able to change anything.
