The new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) revealed by Ukraine’s military has a 2,000 km range and a bomb payload of 250 kg. It may just turn out to be the most powerful reusable UAV in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The unmanned systems branch of the Ukrainian military officially confirmed on Friday the development of the drone, saying it was “a unique development that changes the rules of the game on the battlefield.”
For the past three years since the all-out invasion started, Ukraine engineers have been building drones that could fly farther and farther. It was indicated with recent strikes of Russian targets from over 1,610 kilometers away, as confirmed just a few days ago by Forbes to be a reusable bomber drone.
The new drone is able to drop a bomb and return to base, thus being able to execute multiple missions until it is either shot down, worn out, or crashes. This reusability may well significantly increase the frequency and scale of strikes on Russian targets, especially given recent attacks on bomber bases and oil facilities. These strikes have not only driven up the cost of Russian bombing campaigns against Ukrainian cities but also restrained Russia’s oil production, which has a significant bearing on the state revenue.
While the actual airframe for the long-range drone remains unknown, phot evidence suggests it may be a modified civilian sport plane. Ukrainian drone regiments have previously employed propeller-driven Aeroprakt A-22 sport planes, modified with remote controls and an underbelly bomb rack. However, those A-22s only flew one-way missions, crashing into targets like slow-moving cruise missiles.
Operating a drone is somewhat user-friendly via GPS and satellite radio, but landing is still difficult. Parasol parachutes are used for small drones, but runways are required by larger ones. Advanced militaries use high-tech landing systems, but it is not known whether these are included in Ukraine’s cheaper strike drones, which normally cost a few hundred thousand dollars each.
This is Ukraine’s wider campaign aiming at Russian refineries, oil depots, and industrial sites used to fuel Russia’s war effort. For example, one of Russia’s biggest refineries, the Volgograd refinery, as reported by Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, was attacked by a Ukrainian drone.
Earlier this week, Kyiv said it was responsible for a strike on a Lukoil refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region, east of Moscow. Last week, a Ukrainian drone attack also led to the shutdown of a refinery in Ryazan, southeast of Moscow.
In retaliation, a Russian drone attack on a residential block in Sumy, an eastern Ukraine city, killed nine people, including three elderly couples.
