International Drone Day: How Ukraine is changing the course of the war with drones
Kyiv • UNN
Ukrainian drones have proven their effectiveness in the war, destroying enemy equipment. UAV development increases the country's defense capabilities and reduces dependence on imports.
On May 2, the world celebrates International Drone Day - a holiday dedicated to the development of drone technologies, their contribution to civilian and military spheres. For Ukraine, this is not just a date, but a symbol of technological breakthrough in the conditions of war, because Ukrainian developments in unmanned aviation have long proven their effectiveness, in particular in the fact that drones for $500 can destroy Russian equipment that exceeds the cost of millions of dollars, writes UNN.
Drone Day: the history of the holiday
On March 22, 2015, drone enthusiast and That Drone Show participant David Oneal proposed holding a fun race on the beach, where he launched a whole bunch of black and white devices. They not only flew and broadcast videos, but also made funny sounds. This event so amused those present that David decided to hold a drone day every year. However, he moved the date to May, when the weather is warmer and clearer. So, since 2016, International Drone Day has been held on the first Saturday of May.
The purpose of the event is to show that drones can be used not only for military and intelligence purposes. The organizers want to convey the idea that unmanned technologies can provide wide peaceful opportunities: to rescue lost people, to assess the quality of growth of agricultural crops and otherwise stimulate economic development.
Who would have thought in 2015 that such a fun pastime would become valuable, starting in 2022. Drones have proven their effectiveness during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which are widely used in the war.
Reconnaissance and multi-purpose UAVs
A1-CM "Furia" is a Ukrainian unmanned aerial complex for reconnaissance and artillery fire adjustment. Developed by Atlon Avia in 2014. Capable of conducting reconnaissance and adjusting artillery fire. Flight range - up to 200 km, duration - up to 3 hours.
"Leleka-100" - a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle designed for reconnaissance, developed in 2017. It has high accuracy and resistance to electronic warfare. The UAV is actively used during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In particular, in March 2022, the Russian Buk anti-aircraft complex was destroyed with the help of the complex.
Shark - a reconnaissance unmanned complex created by Ukrspecsystems for observation and fire adjustment, developed in 2022. The UAV is equipped with a highly reliable communication module that allows it to penetrate up to 80 km into the enemy's rear in electronic warfare conditions. The optoelectronic surveillance complex with Full HD resolution, with 30x optical zoom and additional 3x digital zoom, allows observation at a distance of up to 5 km from the drone to the object.
Raybird-3 (ACS-3) - tactical UAV with a flight duration of up to 28 hours and a range of up to 1000 km. Designed for long missions and search and rescue operations. Since 2016, it has been approved for operation in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
PD-2 - Ukrainian multi-purpose UAV manufactured by Ukrspecsystems, developed in 2020. PD-2 flies up to 10 hours, providing communication at a distance of 180-200 km. Thanks to its reliability and vertical take-off and landing capability, the PD-2 can operate in various conditions and environments.
UAVs of the PD series are in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Strike drones and kamikaze drones
Punisher - a light strike-reconnaissance UAV from the Ukrainian company UA Dynamics. It was developed in 2016 specifically for units of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The developers claim that Punisher is a high-precision alternative to long-range artillery or missile weapons for hitting enemy targets at distances of up to 45 km.
The complex allows you to destroy targets from the "first shot". Has a predicted localization of impact. The drone uses a small unguided high-explosive fragmentation bomb with a caliber of 75 mm, which is designed to destroy or disable stationary structures, mobile command posts, light armored vehicles, and infantry.
UJ-22 AIRBORNE - a multi-purpose unmanned aerial complex developed by UkrJet, capable of performing flights at any time of the year, day and night, in simple and complex weather conditions, in conditions of active use of electronic warfare by the enemy. Capable of carrying unguided aerial bombs (82-mm mines) to destroy manpower, armored vehicles and ground targets. The drone is capable of performing tasks at a distance of up to 800 km.
On February 28, 2023, a drone was reported to have been found near the village of Gubastovo (near the city of Kolomna) in the Moscow region, 460 km from the border with Ukraine, in which the Ukrainian UJ-22 Airborne was recognized.
Another development of the company is UJ-23 TOPAZ - a jet UAV, which is part of the complex, capable of performing flights at any time of the year, day and night, in simple and complex weather conditions, in conditions of active use of electronic warfare by the enemy. The drone is capable of performing tasks at a distance of up to 400 km, carrying a payload of up to 10 kg, and staying in the air for up to 90 minutes.
RAM II – a loitering munition designed to deliver accurate, effective strikes against enemy forces and minimize collateral damage when used in urban areas.
The main feature of the RAM II UAV is an active visual object tracking system that allows you to lock on to a target using video transmitted in real time from an onboard video camera and track the target until impact.
In March 2023, Serhiy Prytula published a video of how RAM II struck Russian Tor M2 air defense systems and BM-21 Grad MLRS.
In August last year, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced the first and successful combat use of a new Ukrainian weapon - the "Palianytsia" rocket-drone.
There are currently no exact characteristics of "Palianytsia", but experts suggest that it is a jet drone 2-2.5 meters long, with a speed of 400 to 600 km/h. Details of its navigation system are unknown, and the likely warhead can reach a maximum of 40 kg.
An-196 "Liutyi" is a Ukrainian long-range kamikaze drone. The main operators are the GUR, the SBU and the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This drone is best known for its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure and other strategic facilities deep inside Russia.
The drone is capable of performing tasks at a distance of up to 1000 km and carrying a payload of up to 75 kg.
Naval drones
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as of May 2, Russia has lost 28 ships and 1 submarine in the war against Ukraine. The lion's share of the naval fleet was destroyed by naval drones, such as Sea Baby and MAGURA V5.
Sea Baby is a Ukrainian multi-purpose unmanned surface vehicle developed by the Security Service of Ukraine during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The first models were created by July 2022 in collaboration with specialists from the Navy and some private companies. Later, the SBU decided to develop drones on its own, resulting in Sea Baby.
Models from the end of 2023 already had several duplicate communication systems, were made of low-visibility materials, and had warheads of up to 850 kg, compared to 108 kg in the first versions
In May last year, UNN sources reported that the SBU's Sea Baby naval drones, for which Ukrainians raised funds through the UNITED24 platform, are now equipped with Grad systems and are already actively "minusing" the occupiers.
In July 2024, it became known that on July 17, 2023, Sea Baby naval drones rammed the pillars of the Crimean bridge. For more than 20 hours, SBU drones moved in two groups towards the target. They managed to pass unnoticed under the noses of the Russians and destroy one section of the bridge and significantly damage the other.
On March 6, 2024, Brigadier General of Military Counterintelligence of the SBU Ivan Lukashevich presented the first of the UAVs named "Avdiivka", which became more powerful than previous models. The SBU said that this drone is reusable and has its own weapons, with which it can hit targets and help cheaper drones.
In June 2024, Ukraine hit at least 4 enemy ships thanks to the fact that SBU Sea Baby naval drones laid more than 15 underwater mines near the Crimean peninsula. The explosives were installed on routes used exclusively by military ships of the Rashists.
In particular, the small missile ship "Samum", the patrol ship of Project 22160 "Pavel Derzhavin", the tugboat "Professor Mykola Muru", and the minesweeper "Volodymyr Kozytsky" were hit by these drones.
Magura V5 is a Ukrainian multi-purpose unmanned surface boat developed for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Capable of performing surveillance, reconnaissance, patrolling, search and rescue operations, mine countermeasures, naval protection, but is primarily known for its strike role.
In particular, this drone hit the Russian reconnaissance ship "Ivan Khurs", a high-speed enemy boat, as well as the Russian boat "Tunyets" in the temporarily occupied Crimea.
The GUR also reported that thanks to the Ukrainian naval drones of the GUR of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the following went to the bottom:
- landing ships "Akula" and "Serna";
- missile ship “Ivanovets”;
- large landing ship "Tsezar Kunikov" and patrol ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation "Sergei Kotov".
In addition, on December 31, 2024, GUR soldiers were the first in the world to destroy a Russian Mi-8 helicopter with the help of a Magura V5 naval drone, and another helicopter was hit.
In March of this year, the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov presented a universal water drone equipped with torpedoes, a minigun, a machine gun and MANPADS.
We are talking about a robot called "Katran" - this is a new high-tech development from the Ukrainian military company Military Armored Company HUB.
"The drone is equipped with torpedoes, a minigun, a machine gun, MANPADS and other weapons. It calmly overcomes distances of more than 1,000 kilometers, performs strike and reconnaissance operations. The drone is multifunctional - it effectively destroys sea, land and air targets," Fedorov said.
It can be concluded that the Ukrainian industry has made a huge step forward in the development of its own drones, which can even be assembled in garages. Ukraine is demonstrating significant progress in the development of its own defense industry, in particular in the field of unmanned technologies, which significantly increases the country's defense capabilities and reduces dependence on foreign supplies.
