“The USA studied our air defense”: General Bizhev told how drones of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were able to fly to the Yaroslavl region

NATO supplies Kyiv with data on the location of Russian complexes

Ukraine attempted to attack an oil refinery in the Yaroslavl region with drones. Of the four aircraft-type unmanned vehicles, one flew to the target area, but it also crashed before reaching the plant. This is the first attack by Ukrainian drones on the northern Russian region. Former deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force for the Unified Air Defense System, Lieutenant General Aitech Bizhev, in a conversation with MK, explained how the Ukrainian drone was able to fly to Yaroslavl.

As the regional governor reported in his Telegram channel, the attack was prevented by the plant’s electronic warfare system. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The drone crashed near a hydrocracking unit, which is designed to produce low-sulfur fuel distillates from various raw materials.

This is the first official report of a drone attack on a critical infrastructure facility in the Yaroslavl region since the beginning of the special military operation. It turns out that the drone launched from the territory of Ukraine was able to fly hundreds of kilometers.

“In Ukraine, after the collapse of the USSR, there were units armed with drones,” says Aitech Bizhev. – There were many aviation design bureaus and factories producing aircraft, there were engineering and design personnel. So it’s not surprising that Ukraine, with the help of Western sponsors, was able to create long-range drones.

In Soviet times, aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles were used to conduct reconnaissance deep in enemy defenses; even then they could fly at a distance of up to 1000 kilometers. They were also used to train fighter aircraft and air defense crews. There are quite a lot of such aircraft left on the territory of Ukraine after 1991.

Now they are equipped with modern navigation devices and are guided using GPS navigation. They are prescribed a flight mission and route, taking into account the contouring of the terrain and the objects located along the route.

– How do drones manage to bypass our air defense systems?

– It’s no secret that space intelligence of the United States of America carefully studies our air defense system and radar fields to compile route maps. Aircraft-type drones themselves are constantly being improved taking into account the latest technologies that Western countries and the United States now have.

Our air defense system is quite effective. Another thing is that not a single air defense system in the world can give a 100% result in the fight against small-sized, low-flying drones.

A large percentage of unmanned aerial vehicles are destroyed by us and do not achieve their goals. I think that in the near future, experts will figure out how an unmanned aerial vehicle could fly to the Yaroslavl region. Fortunately, it is practically undamaged and its “electronic brains” can be studied to understand where it started from, how it flew, what commands it received. At the same time, they will check how our air defense crews were on duty and how the equipment worked.

– Can companies that manage critical infrastructure independently provide protection against unmanned attacks?

– They, of course, can do this on their own initiative. But particularly important facilities, such as oil refineries, administrative centers, power plants, hydroelectric power stations, airfields, are protected by a unified air defense system. If “private traders” begin to deal with this issue, then there will be complete chaos. We will shoot down half of our drones and planes. Now, on their own initiative, they can use anti-drone guns. But I don’t see any prospects here, because for this there must be specially trained personnel who must work in a single system, under a single leadership. Otherwise, chaos and chaos will result.