A-22 gunner.
Via social media
Ukrainian pilots in 1970s-vintage propeller planes engaged in World War I-style dogfights with Russian drones, and now more Ukrainians are taking to the skies in slow-flying propeller planes, preparing to hunt down Russian drones buzzing over vulnerable bases and cities.
A video circulating on social media this weekend shows a Ukrainian intelligence crew aboard a domestically-made Aeroprakt A-22 sports aircraft, with a gunner sitting in the left seat of the two-seater aircraft aiming an assault rifle at a target drone.
The intelligence tactics are not dissimilar to those developed by crews of Yakovlev Yak-52 trainer aircraft, likely borrowed from a Ukrainian aviation club, which have been shooting down Russian drones over southern Ukraine since mid-April, with the Yak-52’s rear gunner firing a shotgun at the slow-flying, low-flying drones.
The Yak-52 crew’s method is effective and, perhaps most importantly, cheap. The Ukrainian military cannot afford to fire its biggest and best air defense missiles, which weigh thousands of pounds and cost millions of dollars a shot, at a 33-pound Orlan-10 drone that costs just $100,000. The operating cost of a Yak-52 or A-22 is only a few hundred dollars per hour. It costs almost nothing to fire a few shotgun rounds or rifle bullets.
It is not surprising that the Ukrainian intelligence service has selected the A-22 for the drone defense role.
The A-22 is the kind of plane that a middle-class hobbyist pilot might buy for some fun flights over their local airport: “If you’re looking for a rugged airplane that’s easy to handle, has incredible performance on short-distance flights, can cruise at over 95 knots, and has a generous (legal) payload, you’ve come to the right place!” boasts Arizona-based Raynor Aircraft, which sells the A-22 in the United States, on its website.
Kiev’s military has already deployed $90,000 A-22s in combat as attack drones: modified for autonomous flight and loaded with explosives, they have been flown hundreds of miles into Russia to attack military and industrial targets.
If the A-22 has a drawback compared to the Yak-52, it’s the A-22’s weaker engines. The 1,000-pound A-22’s Rotax engines produce just 100 horsepower, while the 3,000-pound Yak-52’s Bedeneyev engines produce 360 horsepower. With a better power-to-weight ratio, the Yak-52 may be better at tight-turning combat with drones.
But any drone shooter is better than no drone shooter. Ukraine is scrambling to shoot down the dozens of Russian surveillance drones that fly with near-impunity over Ukrainian cities and bases every day. For an astonishing three days last week, Russian drones flew over Ukrainian airfields and detected Iskander ballistic missile targets.
The Ukrainian military lost at least three valuable fighter jets in these raids, all because they failed to shoot down the drones before they spotted the planes on the ground.
In fairness, dogfighting sports planes may not be the best option for defending an active airfield, as they could pose a danger to fighter aircraft during takeoff and landing.
But if A-22s and other light aircraft could defend, say, cities in southern Ukraine, it would allow more powerful ground-based air defense forces to be transferred to vulnerable airbases.