UKR Converts Ultralights to Long Range Drones

[MIflyer]

Finally, it appears that someone has come up with an application for ultralights in which their notorious safety problems are not a drawback. By the way, my favorite tie commemorates Rust's feat.

From AVWeek:

Ukraine appears to have turned to converted ultralight aircraft to act as long-range one-way attack drones in a bid to extend its reach in Russia.
Footage published online shows one of the aircraft, subsequently identified as a Ukrainian-made Aeroprakt A-22 Foxbat or A-32 Vixxen ultralight, crashing into and exploding on buildings near a factory at Alabuga, Republic of Tatarstan, on April 2.

The site is where Russia has set up production lines for the Iranian-developed Shahed-136 loitering munition.

The attack at Alabuga is one of two Ukrainian strikes reported by Russian authorities. The other hit an oil refinery in nearby Nizhnekamsk, although Russian news agency TASS said the latter attack had failed thanks to the use of electronic warfare systems.

Both sites are located around 1,200 km (745.6 mi.) from Ukraine's border.

There has been no formal acknowledgment of the strikes by officials in Kyiv as is usual with such attacks, but TASS reported that the aircraft were "equipped with equipment from NATO countries."

It was likely only a matter of time before Ukraine attempted to strike or disrupt production of the Shahed drones, given the extensive use of the low-cost systems as a means of expending Ukraine's air defense missiles and attacking civilian infrastructure.

Ukrainian industry has been steadily developing longer-range indigenous drone systems to strike back at Russian infrastructure beyond the front line and potentially forcing Russia's military to reposition air defense system to deal with the threat.

In what appears to be another Mathias Rust situation for Russia's air defense forces, questions may yet be asked about how these aircraft managed to fly such a distance into Russia's hinterland without being spotted or intercepted.

A then 18-year-old Rust landed a Reims Cessna F172P in Moscow near Red Square and the Kremlin on May 28, 1987.

Aeroprakt's website describes the 1,323-lb. maximum takeoff weight A-22 as having a range of more than 500 nm, while the A-32 has a range of 700 nm, which may make the latter a more appropriate platform for the strike.

 

[SaparotRob]

..but TASS reported that the aircraft were "equipped with equipment from NATO countries."

So are Russian planes.

 

[MIflyer]

One of the problems with cheap and available drones is how do you keep them from being used for assassinations. About 30 years ago a DoD study pointed out that our launch sites at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg were vulnerable to ultralights and that modern fighter aircraft were not suitable as interceptors for that threat and the Russians have that same problem. I suppose that attack helicopters might be suitable as interceptors, but no one wants to fly standing patrols with them.

Several years back I went for a typical local flight and when I landed the Sheriff Dept told me the FAA wanted to talk to me. Eventually we figured out that some SpaceX employees had launched a drone to go take a look at one of the launch pads they were using without telling anyone they were doing that. That drone was picked up on ATC radar and they got it confused with my airplane even though I never came closer than 3 miles to the thing. They let me off the hook when they realized that the target they had tracked had hovered and my airplane could not do that. I have no idea if any of the SpaceX employees were ever called to account for their actions; they feigned ignorance to the cops.