Ukraine threatens with strikes on Murmansk: drones with a range of up to 3000 km have been created

Ukraine is soon going to use long-range drones that can attack military airfields and bases in the Urals and the Arctic. The German Bild wrote about this with reference to its sources. The maximum flight range of one of the new drones is more than 3,000 kilometers.

Former deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force for the Unified Air Defense System of the CIS countries, Lieutenant General Aitech Bizhev, in a conversation with MK, explained the danger of long-range aircraft-type drones and how to deal with them.

According to Western journalists, already this year Ukraine will be able to use a drone with a range of more than 2,000 kilometers. According to the developers, they should fill the deficit in the arsenals of the Ukrainian Armed Forces of medium- and long-range missiles.

At the same time, the publication’s source stated that by the end of the year, ten manufacturers will supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces with drones with a range of up to 2,500 kilometers, and the Kiev design bureau “Luch” has already developed the Sokol-3000 drone, which can fly up to 3,300 kilometers.

Thus, Western journalists are confident that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be able to attack our military bases in the Murmansk region with new weapons, including the Olenya airfield, where our Tu-95MS strategic bombers are based.

Let us recall that this week the Ukrainian Armed Forces for the first time attacked targets in Tatarstan, which were located 1,200 kilometers from the front line. Ukrainian UJ-22 drones were used for the strikes, as well as a drone created on the basis of the Ukrainian Aeroprakt A-22 Flying Fox ultra-light aircraft.

According to General Bizhev, creating unmanned vehicles like the A-22 is not difficult.

“This is an ordinary aircraft that is refueled with kerosene, like an airplane, engines and an autopilot are installed on it, parameters are set and targets are indicated,” he says. – These targets are adjusted by a satellite constellation that is in space, and they can fly around the terrain – where necessary, they will descend, and where necessary, they will rise. In technical terms, there really are no problems.

However, such drones are unlikely to be able to reach a given target, according to the general.

“The problem is,” he says, “that the likelihood of the destruction of strategic objects and targets at such long distances is unlikely. Unlike drones, they are easier to destroy. Conventional drones have a small effective reflective surface, are more difficult for radar to detect, and have a low speed. Our air defense system was not initially “tailored” for such purposes. Therefore, during the special operation, we had to look for new ways to destroy low-altitude, low-speed and small-sized targets. And now we are doing this quite successfully, and they often fall down ahead of schedule, without completing the assigned tasks.

– Aitech Magomedovchi, how will they be shot down? Do these goals require a new approach?

– There is nothing new. As soon as an enemy aircraft-type drone comes into the field of view of our radio engineering troops – from the moment of takeoff and along the entire route – it is under our control and is prey for fighter aircraft, military air defense and the country’s air defense. We have separate aircraft such as the Mig-31 and Su-27, which can fly at high speeds and remain in flight for a long time, taking into account refueling in the air.

I repeat, this unmanned aerial vehicle is the same plane, only without a pilot, with a huge reflective surface, and not at high speed. The real cruising speed of such aircraft is 500-700 kilometers per hour. It can be increased, but this will entail increased fuel consumption and, accordingly, a decrease in range. So this is not difficult prey for air defense.

– Then why did aircraft-type drones fly to Tatarstan?

– The reasons may be different, they are now being sorted out and analyzed. Our enemy is completely at the mercy of the entire NATO bloc. And everything advanced – technology, developments – is transferred to him. On the one hand, war is bad, but, on the other hand, we are constantly learning and developing. There are no longer any weapons of destruction that our crews would not destroy on the ground and in the air. Our fighter aircraft – Su-30, Su-34, Su-35 – the entire new generation of aircraft – are too tough for the West, as are air defense systems. Our air defense is so multi-range that it has no equal. In the West they can say whatever they want, but we have long been very far removed from them.