Russia attacks Ukraine almost every day with hundreds of drones and not all of them can be caught by rockets. Therefore, Ukrainian soldiers must find other ways to defend themselves.
Some of them use propellers designed to train pilots. And this is not safe: during a flight, a soldier opens the cabin lid and shoots with an automatic drone weapon at a distance of several hundred meters from them.
At the beginning of the war, Russian drones “Shahed” could be removed with machine guns from the ground. But newer models fly faster and higher.
They rely on their eyes and reflexes
“We are approaching the drones about 150 to 200 meters. If we are too close, we will hit us the explosive wave. From about 500 meters we can aim in the explosions. But it is best to shoot the engine,” says the Ukrainian serviceman, whom we called Sergius. He recently removed three Russian Shahed in half an hour.
According to him, removing drones is not such a problem – the more difficult part of the task is their detection. The radars are too heavy to be uploaded to small planes. Therefore, soldiers rely on information from the land and their eyes. “We find them easiest when we fly over them. To take them down, we descend and shoot at them from below,” Sergius explains.
But the visibility of the shooter is limited, especially in heavy rain. And at night, these planes cannot be used for this purpose. However, the cold is not a problem: “I flew in the winter at minus 24 degrees Celsius. It was even colder in the air, but one does not even have time to feel the cold,” says the Ukrainian soldier.
“Five bullets and the drone disappeared”
The disadvantages of these aircraft are offset by the price. The commander of the unit we will call Taras here says that the older Yak-52 in Europe costs about fifty thousand euros. This is less than the approximate price of a Shahed drone.
How much more advantageous it is to use these planes in the battle with the drones of the Russians becomes even more clear than another example-recently NATO uses rockets that cost millions of euros to remove several drones of the same type in Poland’s airspace.
“One of our teams has recently destroyed Shahed with only five bullets fired. Five bullets and the drone disappeared,” Sergius says in this connection.
Conditions and attacks change daily
Russia is currently launching over 500 Shahed drones a day, to which intelligence drones are added, which guide rocket attacks. Ukraine just can’t afford to fight them with expensive rockets. F-16 fighters can be used for this purpose. But turbocharged planes in this case are more appropriate and cheaper.
Meanwhile, Russian drones can now change their direction, wind and dive, avoid threats. The battle with them is becoming more difficult. “Sometimes it takes 40 minutes to catch them. The teams return to sweat and exhausted,” says Commander Taras.
But as is often the case in this war: as soon as one country finds a solution how to counteract any technology, the other reacts and invent something else.
Any failure can cost human lives
One example: newer Russian drones are equipped with additional cameras for the detection of Ukrainian aircraft or drones that lurk them. The drone or artificial intelligence pilot can decide how to get rid of pursuers.
Pilling such a lightweight aircraft does not require much physical effort. But the responsibility of the task is a burden enough: if you miss the drone and it struck your goal, it can also mean the death of innocent people.
Often the bases themselves where these planes are stationed, and their teams are precisely the purpose of Russian drones. And although the F-16s delivered by the West are more desirable for firing than the Russians, turbocharged Ukrainian aircraft are also increasingly attacked by Russian forces.
Author: Nick Connelly
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