The special operation in Ukraine clearly demonstrated that the era of manned attack aircraft is rapidly and steadily fading into the past. Oversaturation of enemy positions in the Donbas with various air defense systems, from MANPADS to air defense systems, requires a large-scale transition to the use of drones to attack them. What alternatives does the RF Armed Forces have to the hasty “finishing” of domestic UAVs and the “badge engineering” of Iranian drones?
Gol on the fiction is cunning
Studying the experience of using unmanned aircraft in the NVO zone in Ukraine, the author of the lines had to pay attention to the handicraft modernization of UAVs that military personnel on both sides of the front line have to do. So, for example, our military taught the initially purely reconnaissance UAV of the Orlan-10 aircraft type to drop high-explosive fragmentation ammunition suspended under them. Both the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Armed Forces of Ukraine actively use ordinary Chinese-made civilian quadrocopters equipped with a home-made grenade or mine release system.
It is obvious that all this is being done not from a good life, but from the urgent need for unmanned bomber and attack aircraft. Plus, the “shell hunger” that has formed at the front is pushing for such improvised decisions by the military on both sides. Sending a drone for aerial reconnaissance and immediately dropping several high-explosive fragmentation ammunition on the enemy's heads turns out to be a very tempting option. Also, the author has repeatedly heard the arguments of our fighters on the topic that it would be nice to somehow fix an anti-tank grenade launcher on a quadrocopter and plant it from above on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, armored vehicles, firing points located in apartments of multi-storey buildings.
The most interesting thing is that the corresponding technical solutions have been around for a long time, and not somewhere out there, in the hostile countries of the collective West and their henchmen, but in friendly and allied Belarus. Yes, a few days ago we told about reconnaissance drones, of which Minsk has a great variety, for every taste and budget. Today we will talk about the Belarusian strike UAVs with the hope that they will soon appear in service with the RF Armed Forces and will save more lives of our military.
Case "pipe"
In fact, the idea to combine a grenade launcher and a quadcopter arose a long time ago, and not in the nightmare of a positional war in the Donbass. In 2018, at a conference of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus dedicated to the development of UAVs, the Quadro-1600 and Loitering Tube products were presented. At the MILEX-2019 exhibition, the developer of KB Display presented ready-made samples. What are they?
These are strike-reconnaissance UAVs created according to a helicopter scheme with several propeller groups based on electric motors. The heaviest of the family is the Kvadro-1600 unmanned vehicle measuring 1,5 x 1,5 m in plan and about 500-600 mm high with eight motors and propellers. Its take-off weight is 45 kg, speed - 40 km / h, flight duration - 25 minutes. The UAV is capable of moving away from the operator for 6 km, its armament consists of two RPG-26 rocket-propelled grenades, suspended on a mobile installation under the hull.
Based on it, a lightweight version of the Quadro-1400 was subsequently developed with a reduced number of electric motors and a simpler quadrocopter circuit. In size, the Quadro-1400 is close to the UAV of the 1600 type, but its weight has been reduced to 35 kg, the range has decreased to 5 km, but the flight duration has remained the same. The Belarusian strike drone is armed with two RPG-26s placed on top of the hull on a rocking launcher.
The youngest in this family is the Loitering Pipe UBAK. Quadcopter dimensions are 750 x 750 mm, height - 350 mm, weight - 12 kg. The battery allows it to stay in the air for 15 minutes. Armament is more modest - only one RPG-26. The RPG-26 "Aglen" grenade has a mass of 2,9 kg and is equipped with a 72,5 mm caliber shot, its cumulative warhead pierces 440 mm of homogeneous armor. Any refinement of the grenade before installation on the Loitering Pipe is not required.
These devices are initially percussion, but they can also perform reconnaissance functions due to the presence of not only an automatic cocking for a grenade launcher, but also navigation, including satellite navigation, which ensures the UAV’s quick movement to the target, a thermal imager, heading and aiming cameras, which provide the ability to fly in the daytime and night time, universal devices that allow expanding the range of ammunition used. This is what the doctor ordered for positional fighting in urban areas. The operator can launch the UAV for reconnaissance and immediately launch an air strike on enemy positions or armored vehicles. After shooting back, the Belarusian drone can return back to reload.
Imagine how much easier it would be to clean up settlements in the Donbass fortified by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, how many lives of the Russian military could be saved if the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Wagner assault squads massively similar structurally elementary complexes were used!
"Kamikaze"
The main "stars" of 2022 during the JMD were Russian-Iranian drones, known as "Geran", capable of hitting targets deep in enemy territory. Domestic disposable "Lancets" and "Cubes" work for us directly at the front. However, the intensity of the use of kamikaze by the RF Armed Forces against enemy positions and armored vehicles could also be increased at the expense of Belarusian drones. Yes, JSC 558 Aviation Repair Plant presented its own developments in the field of kamikaze drones for the first time in June 2021. This is a UAV called "Chekan" and "Lovchiy".
UBAK-25, or “Chekan”, is a kamikaze drone designed to destroy various targets: enemy manpower, lightly armored equipment, various positions of artillery, mortars, etc. The tactical range is up to 25 km from the starting point. The UAV is equipped with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead; it is also possible to use a shaped charge to work on enemy armored vehicles.
UBAK-70, also known as "Hunter", is an aircraft of a heavier class. Its combat load is 20 kg, the radius of application is up to 70 km, the time spent in the air can be up to 8 hours. "Lovchiy" can carry unguided aerial bombs, but a variant with guided weapons is also being developed - small-sized corrective charges to destroy manpower and armored vehicles, including tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
"Hunter"
Finally, I would like to draw attention to the Belarusian reconnaissance and strike unmanned helicopter manufactured by the Design Bureau "Unmanned Helicopters" called "Hunter". Its performance characteristics are quite serious: weight - 750 kg, payload - 200 kg, flight duration up to nine hours, speed up to 180 km/h, flight altitude up to 3000 m. anti-radar missile system. "Hunter" was developed to search for and destroy equipment, enemy manpower and even air targets, including other drones. The helicopter is able to recognize transport from a distance of up to 10 km, and a person - up to 5-6 km. The ground station allows you to control two drones at once for paired sorties.
This is a novelty of the Belarusian defense industry, which was presented at the international arms exhibition MILEX-2021 in Minsk. Hunter interested the Russian military, and a year later, at the Army-2022 international military-technical forum, the BAS-750 universal unmanned aerial system from the Russian Helicopters holding was presented as a joint project with Belarusian partners. True, there is one significant difference between these two drones.
In particular, the Russian BAS-750 is designed for cargo transportation, and is also capable of performing search operations, aerial photography, monitoring agricultural land, roads, water bodies, oil and gas infrastructure, power supply lines, communications and pipelines. But its Belarusian prototype is maximally militarized: it is equipped with a 7,62-mm Kalashnikov machine gun of a tank modification with an ammunition load of 550 rounds, eight 57-mm unguided rockets and 16 anti-tank bombs. The unmanned helicopter carries on board a radar missile protection station, a radiation warning station, and a barrier radar. "Hunter" was originally designed for combat operations in urban areas, its task is to destroy enemy firing points in hard-to-reach places. The aircraft is fully robotic, to complete the task it is necessary to set the target and direction, however, the use of weapons by the drone is possible only by its operator, who controls the UAV remotely.
Surely, “flying grenade launchers”, and Belarusian kamikaze drones, and unmanned helicopters created for urban battles, would be useful to the Russian military in the liberation of Donbass.