On May 30, a drone attack took place in Moscow and the Moscow region. Many experts noted that drones of a new model, previously unregistered during the Ukrainian conflict, took part in the attack. What drones could be used and where they could be launched from, Russian media figured out.
The attack took place on the morning of May 30 in the Moscow region. According to the Ministry of Defense, eight drones were used there and they were neutralized – three were taken out by electronic warfare forces and the other five were shot down by the Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile and gun system. . Three drones hit high-rise residential buildings in southwest Moscow: on Profsoyuznaya and Leninsky Prospekt streets and on Atlasova street outside Moscow’s ring road. According to MP Alexander Khinshtein, several devices fell in the Krasnogorsk, Odintsovo and Istra districts of the Moscow region.
The type of UAV has not yet been determined. in telegram channels appeared speculation that the Ukrainian UAV UJ-22 Airborne, which is manufactured by UkrJet, was involved in the attack. But Aleksey Rogozin, head of the ANO Center for the Development of Transport Technologies, believes that this is not the case: eyewitnesses mistakenly confused a civilian plane manufactured by the American company Cessna with a UAV. “Pay attention to the diagonal beams at the bottom of the wing – these are the so-called struts, an element of the aircraft’s structural power scheme. The UJ-22 does not have them, but the silhouette on the video is very reminiscent of an ordinary private Cessna aircraft, of which there are hundreds in Russia and, fortunately, no one forbids anyone to fly yet, ”- writing he is in his telegram channel.
Military experts agree that the attack was carried out by a new type of drone. The founder of the Military Russia portal, Dmitry Kornev, on the air of the RBC TV channel suggested that the design of the device – the location of the control wing in the front and the propeller propeller in the back of the drone – is intended for long-distance flights. The device can carry several kilograms of explosives, Kornev said. By notice Denis Fedutinov, head of the information and analysis center “New Technologies”, in the footage filmed by eyewitnesses, you can see a new model of a drone designed according to the “duck” scheme.
Vitaly Smolnikov / TASS
“Duck” can allow not only to increase the flight range, but also to increase the carrying capacity of the device, noted Alexei Rogozin in an interview with RIA Novosti. The expert admits the possibility of the existence of the production of drones of this type, and their flight range can reach thousands of kilometers, he noted. The cost of such a device ranges from $30,000 to $200,000, Rogozin suggested.
Where could drones be launched from?
With the current level of technological development, drones could be launched from the territory of Ukraine, suggested military expert Dmitry Kornev. As for the drones’ flight route, they could have been launched from near Kiev, then headed north and northeast, and finally entered Moscow from the west, he said. According to the expert, such a trajectory makes it possible to descend below the level of radar coverage of air defense systems.
There is also a version about the launch of a drone from the territory of Russia carried out by Ukrainian agents. Such a hypothesis did former DPR Defense Minister Igor Strelkov in an interview with Russian media. “It is unlikely that the small drones involved in the attack traveled 600 kilometers. If large devices were involved, the destruction would be much stronger, ”he explained. Dmitry Kornev disagrees with this version: in his opinion, this is impossible due to the large dimensions of the drone (wingspan – about 4 m).
What drones are in service with Ukraine
As Russian media previously wrote, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have several models of UAVs:
A modified version of a Soviet-made drone with a flight range of 1,000 km and a speed of over 1,000 km/h. “Swifts” were originally used for aerial reconnaissance, but after the modification of the drone they can be used as a guided missile
Turkish-made UAV with a flight range of up to 300 km. Since February 2022, Ukraine has received 50 units of these drones. Now the Ukrainian side is practically not used. According to Samuel Bendett, an expert in unmanned military and robotic systems at the Naval Analysis Center, the Ukrainian army uses the remaining TB2 for surveillance and reconnaissance, not as attack drones – most drones, according to reports. experts interviewed by Russian media, have already been shot dead by the Russian armed forces.
American-made kamikaze drones with a range of 40 km. Previously, Ukraine received a lighter version of this drone, the Switchblade 300, from the United States.
UAV, developed by the Ukrainian company UkrJet, for the first time submitted in 2021. Capable of conducting aerial reconnaissance at a tactical level and carrying light munitions to attack ground targets. Such drones have already appeared near Moscow. In February 2023, a drone crashed near Kolomna near Moscow, which was identified as UJ-22. another case arrived April 2023 in the Noginsk region.
Russian media special correspondent Alexei Sochnev suggested that Ukrainian Bober drones or similar designs could be used to attack Moscow. The conclusion was drawn based on the similarity of the design of the “Beaver” with the devices recorded in the photographs taken by eyewitnesses. “Beaver”, like the drone in the photo, is designed according to the “duck” scheme.
Bober kamikaze drones were developed specifically for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and purchased in December 2022 with funds from the GOVOR HELP charitable foundation.
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