Click to see full-size image. Via X.
Kiev forces are still using their remaining Soviet-made Tu-143 jet-powered reconnaissance drones as makeshift cruise missiles.
On March 16, one such Ukrainian drone-turned-cruise missile was shot down by Russian air defenses over the region of Bryansk in western Russia.
The Tu-143 is a Soviet-made tactical reconnaissance with low-level flight capability that was first introduced in 1976. The drone is truck-launched with a rocket booster, recovered by parachute, and powered by a TR3-117 turbojet. It has a maximum speed of 950 kilometers an hour, a range of 200 kilometers and a service ceiling of 5,000 meters.
The initial version of the Tu-143 carried film cameras, but later versions carried a TV or radiation detection payload, with data relayed to a ground station over a datalink.
Kiev forces converted the fairly large drone into a cruise missile by replacing the reconnaissance equipment and landing parachute with a guidance system -most likely a GPS-aided inertial navigation system- and a warhead.
They have been using these makeshift cruise missiles since the start of the Russian special military operation with very little success.
Click to see full-size image. Via X.
Russian sources believe that Ukraine is still in possession of dozens of Tu-143. This means that the threat posed by the makeshift missile will not end soon.
Ukraine received serious military support from the United States and other backers over the last two years, including precision-guided artillery rockets, tactical ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles. These weapons were not really much more effective than the country’s Soviet-made systems.
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very illuminating. so when western media whores cry out that russia is running out of missiles, what they actually mean is ukraine is running out of soviet era russian made missiles. ah ha! makes sense now, it was all projection.
so the western money was blocked by congress (as they should) , and as result now nazis are literally trying to use the remaining stock from their military museums. the war is over.
my yahoo newsed brain filled with taliban semen cause me to seek communion in hunter biden crack clown church
rusi by mohli mať poznatky kde tieto stroje ukrajina skladuje. istotne ich len tak nepresúvali. mali by sa na to zamerať. svetu mier!!!
the kiev junta are now so desperate for manpower they will soon be sending grannies armed with shopping trolleys to deal with the russian liberation forces. it seems the junta is getting desperate for weapons too. the scrounger seems to be losing his touch or perhaps the usadmin and its nato poodles are done with their money laundering and buying up ukrainian land on the cheap. gmo anybody?
they will also run out of pilots soon, so nato pilots can earn their salary finally. they have not seen a modern adversary before lmao