The drone attack on Moscow today could only be the prologue to a campaign with which Ukraine intends to make the Russians feel the war and, incidentally, compromise their anti-aircraft defenses. According to the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksyi Reznikov, told the Reuters agency, more than 80 local manufacturers are working on the composition of an arsenal, which currently has dozens of models, both self-produced and imported, from quadropters to civilian or recreational use -and to which grenades are attached for short-distance attacks- to very sophisticated devices. Apparently, a couple of former Microsoft executives would have been working with Ukrainian engineers. Small companies in the sector are also collaborating in Kyiv. Reznikov said that Ukraine needs hundreds of thousands of drones.
One of the local manufacturers, AeroDrone, previously dedicated to devices for agricultural use -for fumigation, etc.- has developed its unmanned aircraft to fly over distances of thousands of kilometers carrying loads of up to 300 kilos. Up to now, the largest drones Known are the multitasking UKRJETs –for reconnaissance but also for attack- capable of flying at 6,000 meters of altitude for six hours and whose radius of action would have been extended to 800 kilometers.
A UKRJET UJ-22 was the first Ukrainian drone detected on Russian territory. It fell, or was shot down, on February 28 near Moscow and in the vicinity of an energy facility. The fact that its fairly complete remains were found seemed to indicate that it was a reconnaissance aircraft.
On May 3, the surprise was huge when two drones flew over the Kremlin, being shot down, one of them right next to the Russian flag that flies overhead, which led us to think that it might have self-destructed with the precise purpose of making it fall. .
Something even more surprising could have happened on May 9. The Ukrainian financier Volodimir Yatsenko had offered, during a telethon, 20 million hryvnas (half a million euros) to whoever would be able to land a drone on Red Square in Moscow during the Victory Day parade, naturally with the device Well identified as Ukrainian, perhaps with the motto “Glory to Ukraine, Glory to the Heroes†on the wings. The prize was to be divided between the manufacturer and the operators in charge of the flight. Yatsenko’s own company, which has been manufacturing a medium-sized drone, the T-10 Dovbush, since December, was exempt from competition. It is unknown how it all ended, although some versions suggest that the plan was canceled at the last moment.
It would not be, however, the first time that the Russian anti-aircraft defense was outrageously mocked. It must be remembered that on May 28, 1987, a German private pilot, Mathias Rust, managed to land his Cessna plane in the middle of Red Square. He had flown in from Finland under radar range and, it was said, the border guards didn’t even see him go by because it was a public holiday.
