Ukraine Has at Least an Entire Squadron of Reusable Horynych Bomber Drones for Striking Hardened russian Targets | Defense Express (en.defence-ua.com)

submitted 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) by supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz to c/ukraine@sopuli.xyz

2 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This is also a counter to fighter-bombers and glidebombs once you knock out radars and air defense, though that may be a more one way use.

This is an echo of aircraft like the O-1 Bird Dog.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_O-1_Bird_Dog

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] The_v@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago

Clever use of an inexpensive small civilian aircraft. The list price for a brand new one is 20-25K euros. Add in probably 10-15K for the remotes. Gives Ukraine a reusable heavy precision bomber with a few hundred km range for less than 40K. Less than the cost of most one-way medium-long range attack drones.

http://www.skyranger.eu/prices.html

They are also very light and small. The wings can be folded back so they can be stored/transported easily. A regular passenger car can tow them on a small trailer. They can take off and land in less than 300m so they can be used about anywhere.

They are highly susceptible to gound fire, manpads, any type of AA, and some attack drones. However given their cost, a plane making 1-2 successful attacks before being shot down more than justifies their cost.

[-] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

They are highly susceptible to gound fire, manpads, any type of AA, and some attack drones. However given their cost, a plane making 1-2 successful attacks before being shot down more than justifies their cost.

This is why Ukraine taking out radars, AA, AWACS aircraft, jammers and other sensors is so important, SEAD works because it lets you drop the price per strike package as enemy air defense capability falls through the floor. Note the opposite is happening with Ukraine's Air Defense, they are forcing russia to equip shaheds with jet engines to be effective.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppression_of_enemy_air_defenses