Mysterious Russian jet‑powered drone downed in Ukraine
The Defence Blog portal reports that Ukrainians have shot down a mysterious Russian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) powered by a jet engine. This is the first time this model has appeared on the front line. The defending army did not expect the sight they encountered while examining the interior of the downed drone.
Ukrainians had never seen such a drone before. In one of the recent attacks, the Russians used a construction previously unknown to both the public and military analysts, reports Defence Blog.
They hit a Russian drone. They checked what it has inside
After shooting down the UAV, the defending army decided to examine the mysterious construction more closely. Two details deserve attention. First and foremost, the drone mentioned is equipped with a jet engine, which indicates that it is most likely a newly designed structure. Older UAVs are usually powered by other units—for example, the popular Shahed-136 uses a piston engine.
What's also important – the jet engine suggests that the designer of the mysterious drone focuses on the maximum speed the device is supposed to reach. Ukrainians also emphasize the aerodynamic silhouette in the flying wing configuration, which suggests that the UAV was intended to be built with a stealth characteristic, meaning reduced detectability.
It is also worth noting that the drone shot down by Ukrainians was moving without any additional equipment. It did not have a reconnaissance device (a camera for observing the situation from the air) or weapons mounted. In theory, the Russian UAV was useless – it did not conduct reconnaissance, nor was it able to attack any Ukrainian positions using onboard weapons.
"Experimental model"
The Defence Blog portal explains that the mentioned lack of equipment on the drone suggests that the Russian Federation used the equipment as bait to test Ukrainian air defence. The Russians could have been verifying whether their new construction is easy to detect, and if so, whether it can be shot down using specific air defence measures.
A detailed analysis of the downed weapon also showed that the "drone was not a high-quality factory product, but rather a more primitive, experimental model." This seems to confirm that the Russian Federation is working on new types of drones and using their prototypes (without additional armament and equipment) as decoys and lures to determine the utility and durability of weapons on the front line in combat conditions. The exact specification of the recently downed mysterious Russian construction remains unknown.
