| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Beaver move. Three scenarios for Ukrainian drone raids on Pskov |
| 2023-08-31 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Sergey Adamov On the night of August 30, Ukrainian troops carried out the most massive attack using drones in the entire period of the armed conflict. UAVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in particular, hit the airfield in Pskov and damaged four Il-76 transport aircraft, which are used by airborne units. In addition, the enemy tried to attack other Russian regions with drones. In the Bryansk region, air defense shot down three drones, in Ryazan - two, Oryol and Kaluga - one each. Another drone was liquidated in the Moscow region, over the Ruza district. Kiev did not officially acknowledge involvement in the attack on the airfield in Pskov. However, a number of Ukrainian sources report that new Beaver kamikaze drones were used for the attack. Drones of this model were designed to deliver strikes at a considerable distance from the front line, military expert, author of the Russian Engineer Telegram channel, Alexei Vasiliev, explained to IA Regnum . “The Bober UAV, both conceptually and in terms of its functionality and dimensions, is very similar to our Geran-2 drones, which are a licensed version of Iranian drones,” Vasiliev said . "Beavers" are assembled by the enemy in order to hit objects in the depths of our territory. “They made their own housing for drones, there is nothing complicated here. It remains to install the engine from the conditional "moped", the GPS guidance system, the warhead - and the drone is ready, ”said the expert. The development of a new kamikaze drone at the enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine was first announced in October 2022. For the first time, "Beaver" was presented this May, after passing factory tests and launching into a series. Judging by data from open sources, the range of the drone is from 500 to a thousand kilometers. It was these drones that were used for terrorist attacks on objects in Moscow, in particular, on the skyscrapers of the Moscow City complex. Where could launch "Bobrov" Theoretically, drones could be launched from the territory of Ukraine and fly to Pskov. But, Vasiliev notes, there are several alternative routes for drone attacks. “The question, of course, is a big one, where the drones were launched from. The first option is that they were launched from the Baltic states, since Pskov is very close to the border with Estonia, ” the expert said. The distance from the Russian-Estonian border to Pskov in a straight line is about 35 kilometers, for comparison, to the border of Russia and Ukraine is about 830 km. If the Ukrainian drones that attacked Pskov were launched from the territory of Estonia, this can be considered the direct participation of a NATO country in hostilities, military blogger Mikhail Onufrienko noted in a comment to IA Regnum . The second option, purely theoretically, drones could be launched from a ship, Vasiliev pointed out. Ukraine could send a cargo ship around Europe to the Baltic Sea area. “Catapults can be installed on board, then drones pass over the sea, enter our airspace in the Leningrad Region. And there is Pskov nearby, ” explained the expert. The third option, " which also should not be written off" : the Ukrainian military reconnoitered the location of our air defense systems, built a route bypassing their coverage area and sent drones along it. “Given that they fly to Moscow, why shouldn’t they fly to Pskov?” - the expert notes. Such a drone is beyond the power of the DRG At the same time, Vasiliev rejected the version with the possible launch of drones by a Ukrainian sabotage group, which was reproduced by a number of Russian publications. According to the expert, it is extremely unlikely that the Ukrainian special services managed to transport a large number of drones of this size across the border: “The same Beaver has a wing size of up to three meters, and a wing span of twice as much. To carry it out unnoticed, to assemble it is not a trivial task. Considering that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB work quite well and identify all sabotage groups, the task becomes even more complicated .” It’s much easier to bring a small FPV drone, attach a grenade, a TNT bomb to it, or take a copter with an ammunition drop system, Vasiliev pointed out. “It’s easier to smuggle the Beaver by sea, through the Baltic, but then, again, it’s easier to launch it from a ship from the Baltic Sea,” the expert noted. How to cover Eli The raid of Ukrainian UAVs on the place where our aircraft are based once again made us wonder why the air bases of the Russian Aerospace Forces are not protected from unmanned attacks. The incident in Pskov is not the first incident of its kind. Earlier, a Ukrainian drone attacked the Soltsy air force base in the Novgorod region. Then the Tu-22M3 bomber was seriously damaged, which also did not have a hangar or any protection against drone attacks. The issue of aircraft protection has been a sore subject over the past years, but the solution to this issue is associated with a lot of infrastructure problems, a military pilot, a veteran of military operations in the Russian Aerospace Forces, told Regnum news agency . The interlocutor emphasized: “Actually, we have been asking this question since the operation in Syria. Take our comrades from the Syrian Air Force - they have concrete shelters at all air bases, where they always drove their fighters. As a result, not a single aircraft was hit as a result of air strikes. Only after the attack on the Khmeimim VKS base, “when plywood drones damaged our aircraft,” only then did real work begin to create shelters, the pilot noted. “Not concrete shelters, of course, but those that allow you to hide aircraft,” the source said. Aircraft shelters help not so much to protect this or that car, but to hide its location from drones or satellite reconnaissance equipment, the source explained to IA Regnum . Aircraft can move inside the hangar, which seriously reduces the attack effectiveness of a small drone. But the subtlety is that this approach works with small-sized equipment - fighters and helicopters - and larger targets are much more difficult to cover. “As for the Il-76 or Tu-22 of the same, then, of course, everything is much more complicated,” the interlocutor noted. “There is no longer a need for shelter, but a full-fledged such design with the involvement of engineering. You can’t build concrete hangars for such hulks from scratch.” For example, the wing area of the Il-76 is 300 square meters, the expert recalled. “ It’s a good house. Are we solving the issue of building shelters for such aircraft? On paper, yes. In fact, there are a lot of problems with the redevelopment of air bases, with the admission of builders, building materials. We need GOSTs, engineering solutions, both universal and unique - taking into account the characteristics of each base , ”the expert is sure. Now a number of bloggers have suggested protecting aircraft with chain-link mesh and other improvised means that can at least delay the drone, the source noted. But, he pointed out, this option is hardly effective. “The problem should be solved in a complex way. Half measures will not work, because the same mesh will not protect, for example, from hitting striking elements, ” the interlocutor explained. When the drone flies into the mesh, an explosion occurs and the planes still take damage. “This is still not an option, we need to work on detection tools, defeating drones, means of covering air bases, and only then - on protecting aircraft directly. If the drone flew to the airbase, then something is already wrong, this must be prevented in any case, ” the specialist said. With the massive use of kamikaze drones by the enemy, the priority task should be to protect fighter and ground attack aircraft at airfields that are closely adjacent to the NVO zone and border areas, the source said. It seems that the VKS command is already working on means of protecting aircraft from the "unmanned" threat. Satellite images of the Engels-2 airbase, where strategic aviation aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces are based, have appeared on the network. The photo shows Tu-95 strategic bombers, which received a new camouflage that copies the pattern of the runway and makes it difficult to identify aircraft from the air. In addition, fences made of sand baskets - gabions - were installed between the aircraft, which make it possible to protect neighboring aircraft from fire in the event of a hit on one of the cars. As previously reported by IA Regnum, ships of the Black Sea Fleet received a similar camouflage. |
| Posted by:badanov |