To pull off one of its deepest strikes ever targeting Russia’s strategic industries, the Ukrainian government took a locally-made ultralight sport p

Ukraine’s New Factory-Smashing Drone Is A $90,000 Sport Plane With A Robot At The Controls

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2024-04-04 11:30:10

To pull off one of its deepest strikes ever targeting Russia’s strategic industries, the Ukrainian government took a locally-made ultralight sport plane, swapped its manned controls for robotic controls and packed it with explosives.

Video of the emergency response following the Tuesday attack on the Alabuga Special Economic Zone industrial campus, 600 miles from the Ukrainian border, reveals that the drone—possibly two of which struck the campus—is based on an Aeroprakt A-22. A high-wing, single-propeller sport plane with room for two.

That the Ukrainians could convert an A-22 into an explosive drone strongly implies the strike on the Alabuga facility, which reportedly assembles Iranian-designed Shahed drones for Russia’s own war effort, won’t be the last for this new drone type.

The simple, reliable and innocuous A-22 after all lends itself to drone conversion. And equally importantly, it’s made in Ukraine—and it’s affordable at just $90,000 a copy.