1y ago

A Ukrainian sport plane drone just flew 800 miles (1300 km) into Russia to blow up an oil refinery

www.forbes.com

A Ukrainian Sport Plane Drone Just Flew 800 Miles Into Russia To Blow Up An Oil Refinery

It’s the deepest Ukrainian drone strike of the war, so far

A month after Ukraine began bombarding targets inside Russia with explosives-laden sports planes modified for remote flight, one of the do-it-yourself drones has struck an oil refinery in the city of Salavat, more than 800 miles from the front line of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine.

It is, by far, Ukraine’s longest-range raid—and an escalation of Ukraine’s deep-strike campaign targeting Russian refineries, factories and strategic military sites.

And it’s at least the fourth attempted deep strike involving Ukraine’s sport-plane drones. Videos shot by people on the ground in Salavat clearly depict the wide straight wings, fixed wheels and propeller that are typical of an inexpensive sport plane, the kind a middle-class pilot can build at home from a kit costing as little as $90,000.

73 comments

I thought maybe the thumbnail was just some generic small plane, but nope. That's the same model that keeps making successful attacks in Russia. The Aeroprakt A-22. That little prop plane. Top speed 127 mph/204 kph. That's what Russia can't find and shoot down.
- Girkin is in jail, you know, so now they have issues shooting down civilian aircraft
- Which is most effective at evading Russian air defense? The F-35, an exquisitely designed $110M jet with among the best stealth that Lockheed Skunkworks can create, or the Ukrainian equivalent of a Cessna trainer aircraft?
  
  It has always been the Cessna, if anyone has not heard of Mathias Rust. It is worth reading. He flew a light aircraft to Moscow and landed it in the middle of the cold war.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Rust
  
  Depends heavily on what air defense it's stacked against and who coordinated the mission.
  Low speed, low altitude aircraft are excellent at evading higher end air defenses, particularly if you've scouted out the anti-air surveillance in advance.
- Is this essentially a piper cub or something entirely different?
  
  Similar, yeah. More modern construction and side-by-side seating instead of tandem. But otherwise, similar size and weight.
- They must have done something to it, because Wikipedia puts its max range as 680 miles.
  
  Adding a 5 gallons gas tank isn't that hard.
  
  Empty weight 260 kg. So a normal Pilot 70-80 kg adds 25-30% weight on top. Plus the weight for seat, steering wheels etc. So with a small payload they probably safe quite some weight.
If Ukraine told me I could bring my own drone over there and blow up an oil refinery in Russia, I’d schedule a vacation.
- Fr The 400 H War thunder have to pay out after all.
- Large scale long range highly clandestine professional military operation -> Headline: Guy With Children's Toy (and tons of military grade explosive) Just Defeated Russia!
  :-/
  
  Accurate.
Slavi Ukraini! I hope they can fly 100 of these through.
This is kind of news I like to read. Go Ukraine!
Slava Ukraini, give them hell.
- The Russian invaders don't want to die? Then get the fuck out of Ukraine and stay out!
  Run along back to Russia now, comrade with a brand new account that definitely wasn't just made for trolling and bad faith arguments.
  
  Full of death is still full.
  
  🤡 Get droned 🤡
  
  What are you a Seventh Day Adventist? Take your pacifism snd shove it! Blood for the tree of liberty! KILL KILL KILL!
Awesome
The raids have somewhat throttled Russian gasoline production, but probably not enough to have an immediate impact on the economy—and thus on the long-term war effort. “These are spot strikes,” energy expert Hennadii Rіabtsev told Ukrainian Pravda. “They are painful and affect logistics, but they do not significantly impact annual total refining volumes.”
What? I thought they have reduced their oil refining? Not to mention, they've started to restrict oil exports(refined oil i believe) since these attacks have taken place all while increasing their unrefined oil exports. It feels like this is actually causing an impact, though definitely not something that directs directly to the front line, but this is long term damage and will make it harder for Russia to generate money.
How come they can't shoot it down before it arrives?
- They're flying these in very low and slow, which is hard for SAM radars to detect and lock on to unless you're right up next to them -- and once they're past the front lines Russia doesn't have many (if any) point defense installations.
  In fact I imagine that the economic impacts of these attacks may be a secondary goal, and the main intent is actually to force Russia to pull SAM systems off the front line and redeploy them across the Russian interior to defend facilities they thought were safely out of Ukraine's reach. The fewer defenses on the front line, the more capable Ukraine's air force is to support efforts on the ground.
  
  Ukraine playing pro dota and forcing dire to ward their own jungle.
  Ideally, they redeploy and still can't shoot the fuckers down lol
- Russia's air defense had a backbone of Cold War era tech before the war started. Ukraine has been consistently plinking away at it. Most of it is naturally positioned near borders to prevent penetration. If you sneak past the coverage thins out quickly. Russia is a huge country so it's also understandable to not have high density coverage throughout.
  At one point Russia had a great setup. But that time was long ago. And oil money going to modernization efforts means less yacht money. Air defense also isn't that critical when you're mostly concerned about beating up on small countries like Georgia and Chechnya that can't fight back.
  
  But have you seen how modern the yachts are.
- I imagine it's too small, and perhaps made mostly of plastic and/or wood, so they might not show up on radar
  
  Wood generally has enough water in it to show up on radar. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a point to expensive composite materials for stealth.
  It's made of mostly metal, though.
That moment when anti-imperialism and climate activism align.
- Idk about the fallout of exploding chemical refineries, especially explosives and fuel, but yeah it might be good long run if we cripple the industry.
Mathias Rust 1987
- On 24 November 1989, while doing his obligatory community service (Zivildienst) as an orderly in a West German hospital, Rust stabbed a female co-worker who had rejected him.
  ffs
- I thought the exact same thing! At the time, I'd heard rumors that the entirety of USSR's air defense was smoke and mirrors. This isn't helping to refute those decades old rumors, if there is anything to refute.
  
  It is also possible that they chose not to shoot down the plane back then, because they didn't want a third world war and it became clear not to be a war plane.
- The difference there is that it didn't cross the border of a country where Russia was in the middle of an active invasion.
Again??
One more down, how many left?
He's a little confused, but he's got the spirit.

73 comments