The drones They are one of the main weapons in the Ukraine war and their widespread use is leading both sides to increasingly imaginative solutions, both to make them more effective and to defend themselves against them. In this last respect, Ukraine has surprised with a new tactic that it is putting into practice: use ultralight aircraft with snipers to patrol certain areas and shoot them down.
A video originally posted on Telegram by Ukrainian journalist Roman Bochkala shows an ultralight Aeroprakt A-22 with a crew consisting of a pilot and sniper intercepting a small fixed-wing drone on a training missionThe ultralight, a model manufactured in Ukraine, had already been modified for use as a single-way attack drone before. In the attack on the drone factory Shahed in Yelabugain the Tatarstan region in southeastern Russia, last April An A-22 converted into a kamikaze drone was used.
In the video, the A-22 flies to the right of the drone and at a higher altitude, while the sniper, with a rifle Maluykcommonly used by Ukrainian special forces units, fires several shots until the drone falls.
Footage of a Ukrainian HUR MO operator shooting down a UAV with an automatic rifle from the Aeroprakt-type ultralight aircraft during training. pic.twitter.com/pIwKxLuqTb
— Status-6 (Military & Conflict News) (@Archer83Able) July 7, 2024
According to Bochkala, the idea of using ultralights with snipers comes from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of UkraineGUR. The journalist recalls a series of ballistic missile attacks on Ukrainian airfields in which it was possible to observe Russian reconnaissance drones searching for targets ‘for five to six hours’ and providing the attack coordinates.
In the face of this type of threat, portable air defense systems, MANPADSare too few in number, air defense systems Patriot are too expensive and risk being attacked in turn, while other ground-based air defense systems are not necessarily effective against drones. Therefore, ‘non-standard actions are required’ such as the use of the A-22 ultralight, he says.
Bochkala claims that this is an effective solution against Russian drones OrlanZala and SuperCamThe A-22 seen in the video was purchased with donations for a price of $35,000It is a stable and easy-to-fly ultralight, with a spacious, glass-enclosed cabin that allows both a good field of vision and shooting, and has a range of 1,100 kilometers.
According to the military media The Warzone, the A-22s armed with snipers could be deployed at high-value Ukrainian airfields and then used to patrol the local area against surveillance drones which are used to spy on these facilities and collect information that allows them to be attacked.