Russia Drones Ukraine - A Bayraktar TB2 drone before a test flight at the Khmelnitsky military base in Ukraine on March 20, 2019.
In footage that went viral on Twitter Sunday night, a large explosion tore through what appeared to be a Russian convoy, directly hitting the surface-to-air missile system.
Russia Drones Ukraine
The black-and-white photo, posted on the account of the armed forces of Ukraine, is one of many that have appeared on social media in recent days showing the devastating effect of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian infrastructure. As the drone takes off in the footage - which appears to be a mobile phone screen shot at a Ukrainian drone factory - people in the factory can be heard gasping in horror before exiting to cheers and applause.
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The video garnered more than 3 million views on Twitter in two days. “Be afraid, enemies! There will be no peace for you on our land!” Ukrainian military forces wrote in the video's caption.
The star of this video and others shared on Twitter is the Bayraktar TB2 — a Turkish drone that the Ukrainian military has used against Russian forces in recent days. The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that Bayraktar drones destroyed a tank and two surface-to-air missile systems overnight. In other videos posted on Twitter, Bayraktar drones, which the military has been using since at least 2021, were shown delivering what appeared to be a Russian fuel convoy and a group of supply trucks.
The drones are small and light, (about seven seconds lighter than the US Army's Reaper drone) with a 12-meter wingspan that allows them to be in the sky 30 hours a day. Each drone can carry four laser-guided missiles, according to promotional material from Baykar Technologies, which makes them.
Ukraine's drone campaign contributed to its initial successes in slowing Russia's advance and revealed elusive weaknesses in the Russian military, US and European military analysts say. Perhaps more importantly, analysts add, the videos are also becoming a popular part of Ukraine's information war — giving Russia's opposition reason to fear its enemy and providing a major boost to Ukraine's response amid fears of a military strike. Even so, drones are unlikely to change the long-term course of the war, analysts say.
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Arda Mevlütoğlu, a Turkish soldier and air analyst, said: “The image released by the Ukrainian military shows serious deficiencies in Russia's air defenses, which is a surprise to many observers. "The image is also very useful for PR and the war of minds."
Reliable and accurate military drones are a hallmark of the US military. But the technology has become commonplace in recent years and is a fixture on many 21st century battlefields. And Turkey is now the main supplier. In the past two years, Turkish Bayraktar drones have appeared not only in Ukraine, but also in Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, Libya and Syria. Last year in Ethiopia, a rebel army fought in the capital, Addis Ababa, before the government drove them back with airplanes. In the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020, Turkish drones proved to be decisive in the victory of Azerbaijan against Armenia - Russia's ally.
"Bayraktars have had some really popular successes in recent years," said Tony Osborne, London bureau chief of Aviation Week, a publication focused on the aviation industry. "I'd argue it's the most popular drone of all right now."
A video shared by Ukraine's armed forces on Sunday demonstrates one of the drones' key selling points: that they have the ability to inflict indiscriminate damage on enemy equipment, that they are much cheaper than other drones and that they are low risk. Osborne estimated that the Bayraktar drones were sold to Ukraine for $1 million each - but that the Russian surface-to-air missile system destroyed in the video on Sunday could be worth up to $50 million.
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"The great thing about them is that they're cheap, and when they're cheap, you don't have to worry too much about losing them," he said. "You can throw them into a fight and if they hit a big attack, like we saw yesterday, all of a sudden you've won the thumb war."
Osborne estimated that Ukraine probably has 20 Baykar drones in its operational arsenal. In December, Bloomberg reported that Ukraine had ordered a dozen more, citing workers. Baykar did not respond to requests for comment.
For Turkey, a member of NATO, the sale of drones to Ukraine is in line with its military interests - namely maintaining the balance of power in the Black Sea region, according to Galip Dalay, an expert on Turkish and Middle East politics at Chatham House, an international city in London. Affairs think tank.
While Bayraktar drones are manufactured by private company Baykar Technologies, drones are generally considered part of Turkish foreign policy. The company's technical director, Selçuk Bayraktar, is the grandson of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "Countries such as the US, China, Israel refuse to sell drones to the Ukrainian military," Haluk Bayraktar, the company's CEO and Selchuk's brother, said during a webinar in June 2021. "Turkey is the only language of the country that agrees to sell Ukraine in this technology."
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Turkish foreign policy has also been marked by the presence of Bayraktar drones in Syria, Libya and Azerbaijan - all battlefields where Russian and Turkish proxies face off. "Drones give Turkey a geopolitical advantage," Dalay said. "It's one thing to fight in places like Libya or Syria, but it's another thing to get drones. Drones make Turkey's job easier."
In other cases, like Ethiopia, drone sales in Turkey are likely driven more by economic than political drivers. Turkey does not place any political conditions on its drone exports, unlike the US, Mevlütoğlu says.
The Ukrainian military almost certainly shared videos of Bayraktar drones visiting death on Russian convoys to boost morale. But with a large convoy of Russian vehicles moving toward Kiev, any reaction from the Ukrainian public to the drone strike videos could be short-lived. Baykar, on the other hand, looks set to earn profits long into the future. "Now that Turkey has a growing defense industry, it wants to show its capabilities as a military test," Dalay said. “These types of conflict zones have become important PR for the Turkish drone industry.” Ukraine has at least a dozen Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones, and reports say it could have as many as thirty-six additional units. These are the same drones that Azerbaijan used effectively against Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Ukraine first purchased six of these medium-altitude tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Turkey in a $69 million deal in 2019. Each Bayraktar TB2 system has six aircraft (or drones), two ground control stations and associated support facilities. , so the first purchase is for a complete set. The unmanned aerial vehicle, which is the armed UAV force of Ukraine, has a range of up to 300 kilometers, lasts up to twenty-seven hours and can carry four laser-guided weapons.
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At the start of the Russian attack, Lt. Col. Yuriy Ignat, a spokesman for the Air Force of Ukraine, said that Ukraine had about two dozen Bayraktar drones. Baykar (the drone manufacturer), Turkey and Ukraine declined to confirm the number of drones delivered to Ukraine to date.
Soldiers push a Bayraktar TB2 helicopter onto a runway in southern Ukraine during the 2021 exercise. Nina Liashono/Getty Images
Bayraktar TB2s first proved themselves when Turkey used them against Russian-made vehicles in Libya and Syria; confirmed this reputation in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In these conflicts, drones successfully destroy armored vehicles and mobile air defense systems.
The first reports of Ukraine using the Bayraktar TB2 against Russian forces after the attack came on February 27, 2022. Ukrainian General Serhiy Shaptala shared a video on Twitter of the TB2 hitting a Russian Buk surface-to-air missile system near the city in a circle. one hundred kilometers northwest of Kiev. The Air Force of Ukraine confirmed two drone attacks on Russian targets. Much more has been shared on social media but has not been confirmed.
The Drone War In Ukraine
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Ukraine's use of the TB2 is based on the operational experience it gained last year during the conflict in the east of the country. In October 2021, Ukrainian civil forces confirmed the use of TB2 in the Donbass region during a counter-battery mission in separatist-controlled territory. The attack was reportedly successful, despite the presence of Russian telecommunications warfare and air defense assets. After the attack, Moscow accused Kiev of a "heroic act". Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov replied that Ukraine used
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