The Zlin Z-137 Agro Turbo agricultural aircraft equipped with R-73 IR-guided air-to-air missiles might be used as a drone hunter.
A short video circulating on social media shows yet another result of the Ukrainian ingenuity in the war effort, with a crop duster now armed with missiles flying low over a field. The aircraft in the video appears to be a Zlin Z-137 Agro Turbo turboprop-powered agricultural aircraft, with a new paint job and equipped with two R-73 IR-guided air-to-air missiles, along with what could be two external fuel tanks.
The circumstances in which the video was captured are unclear, as well as when and where. Similarly, it is unclear how many Z-137s are in Ukraine and how many might have been converted to the new role.
Moravan Z-137 Agro Turbo turboprop aircraft, modified for R-73 air to air missile launches, was spotted in Ukraine. Most likely used to intercept Shahed kamikaze drones or reconnaissance drones. pic.twitter.com/mLjhkiZvIw
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 8, 2025
Armed crop duster
The Z-137 is the turboprop variant of the original Z-37 Čmelák manufactured in Czechoslovakia from the 1960s to the 1980s. Initially propelled by a Soviet-built Ivchenko radial engine, in the 1980s the aircraft received a Walter M-601B turboprop engine and became the Z-37T Agro Turbo, later redesignated Z-137T.
The aircraft is designed to fly at low altitude and at low speed, with a stall speed of 81 km/h (44 knots) in the earlier variants. This makes the Z-137 an ideal platform to hunt drones flying at low altitude and low speed, freeing up from this mission Ukrainian fighter jets.
This would not be the first time Ukraine modifies such a small aircraft to intercept drones. In fact, in 2024 Ukraine already modified Yak-52 piston-prop training aircraft to shoot down Russian drones.
In that case, however, the armaments consisted only of a rifle used by a second crew member sitting in the back seat. In fact, while some initial reports mentioned the Yak-52s were retrofitted with wing or fuselage-mounted machine guns, this was not done due to the extensive and technically challenging modifications required to integrate such weaponry into the airframe.
The heavy activity of Russian drones over Ukraine is becoming increasingly problematic for the war-torn country, with a wide range of measures put in place to contrast the unmanned assets, from old-school searchlights and machineguns to more modern electronic warfare systems and surface-to-air missiles. The Zlin Z-137 now appears to be the latest addition to the air defense line-up.
It must be noted that the Z-137 is not the only armed crop duster, as the U.S. Air Force is now receiving the OA-1K Skyraider II, based on the Air Tractor AT-802 agricultural aircraft, and other customers previously received armed variants of the same platform. While it appears that there is no U.S. involvement in the conversion of the Z-137’s armed variant, the armed variants of the AT-802 might have been a good inspiration.
R-73
The Vympel R-73 (known by NATO with the reporting name of AA-11 Archer) is a short-range air-to-air IR-guided missile, originally developed in the Soviet Union and in service since 1984. It has a reported range, when fired from airplanes, of at least 30 kilometers, and an 8 kg warhead, similar to its Western counterparts like the ASRAAM, IRIS-T and AIM-9 Sidewinder.
The R-73 replaced the Vympel R-60 (AA-8 Aphid for NATO), an older and shorter ranged (from 4 to 8 kilometers) IR-guided missile. The weapon is the main short-range air-to-air missile used by Ukrainian MiG-29s and Su-27s, however it is also being used from surface-based positions.
In fact, in December 2024, Ukraine announced that a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was downed by a naval drone, armed with R-73 air-to-air missiles repurposed as improvised surface-to-air weapons. That was only the first of many instances where the Magura V5 Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) was spotted armed with R-73s.
The weapon is also being used in other two application, the Gravehawk surface-to-air missile system developed by the UK for Ukraine, and locally modified Soviet era 9K33 Osa (SA-8 Gecko) and U.S.-supplied High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV) equipped to launch the R-73.
🇺🇦🤩 Ukrainian short-range air defense missile system with two R-73 on the chassis of an armored vehicle HMMWV. pic.twitter.com/Yr0fBBoXzW
— MAKS 25 🇺🇦👀 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) May 5, 2025
In the Gravehawk’s case, the missiles are launched from a standard ISO sized shipping container, which also includes electrical generators and an electro-optical/infrared targeting camera. The container is compatible with widely used hook-loading trucks for easy deployment.
Ukrainian forces modified a 9K33 Osa surface-to-air system to fire R-73 (AA-11 Archer) short-range air-to-air missiles.
The project, funded by @BackAndAlive, is the first time a charity has modernized a SAM system like this. pic.twitter.com/puMXEDKAnb
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) December 11, 2024
Designated Dragon H73 system, the modified HMMWVs saw the rear seats and the trunk replaced by a turret with the rail launchers for the R-73. As for the Osa, the R-73 replaces its 9M33 missiles, with the former’s rail installed in place of the latter’s containers.
