An interesting reconnaissance drone was captured, almost intact, by the pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine.
Along with the Su-25, Su-27 and Mil Mi-24, the Ukrainian Air Force is operating its fleet of recently restored Soviet-era reconnaissance drones.
Among them, at least until Aug. 1, even one Tu-143 Reys, a type of drone developed from Tu-141, that pro-Russia separatists found almost intact in a field.
The Tu-143 is quite similar to the Tu-141, even though substantially smaller. It has an operative range of about 60 – 70 kilometers and a low-level flight capability.
David Cenciotti is a freelance journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written four books.
In spite of the amount of aircraft shot down by the rebels, civil airliners flew through the SAM-infested airspace of Eastern Ukraine with the risk of being mistakenly hit. As happened to the Malaysian Boeing […]
Based on the graphic shown by the Russian Ministry of Defense, it was a U.S. EF-111 Raven to fly close to the MH17 just before it was shot down. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, […]
U.S. Air Force’s gigantic Global Hawk drones have been flying over Ukraine for about two years. However, they recently let everyone know they were there. Reports of U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk UASs (Unmanned […]
