The news deeply alarmed Ukraine officials about an imminent Russian air raid and caused air raid sirens to blaze across the country.\u00a0The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), which had already been pushed to the wall with Russian missile attacks, must have hatched a plan to rattle the Kremlin.<\/p>\n
On December 5, two Russian AFBs \u2013 Engels and Dyagilevo came\u00a0under attack<\/a>\u00a0by what was believed to be drones fired by Ukraine. Incidentally, these Air Bases are closer to the Russian capital Moscow than they are to Ukraine.<\/p>\n The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in the aftermath of the attack that it was carried out using modified Soviet-era Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Even though it did not specify which drone was responsible for the attack, military experts were quick to decipher that the drone in question was likely the\u00a0Tu-141 Strinzh<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even though the damage is not considered enormous, it has demonstrated that Ukraine has conquered a fundamental limitation plaguing its military operations, i.e., long-range strikes.<\/p>\n Engels and Dyagilevo, home to Russia\u2019s long-range strategic bombers, lie in Russia\u2019s depths and not too far away from the Russian capital.<\/p>\n The effect of this attack, thus, is believed to have been profound and was expectedly followed by another intense missile attack from Russia.<\/p>\n It is pertinent to note that, overcoming its shortcomings, Ukraine has successfully turned the table on Russia after being repeatedly targeted by Russian drones and missiles for weeks.<\/p>\n Until now, most reported Ukrainian attacks on Russian airbases have been limited to locations much closer to Ukraine\u2019s borders, i.e., Crimea or regions inside Russia that was far easier to reach with modified \u2018kamikaze\u2019 drones or short-range ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n The United States and other NATO allies have paid little heed to Ukraine\u2019s request for long-range armor, including the long-range MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). A\u00a0recent report<\/a>\u00a0revealed that the \u2018game-changing\u2019 HIMARS delivered to Ukraine had their range curtailed by the US to avoid an unprecedented escalation.<\/p>\n On its part, while still using military assistance from the West, Ukraine has also evidently turned to its roots and is now using Soviet-era weaponry.<\/p>\n Direct Hit Close To The Heart Of Russia<\/strong><\/p>\n In late June, a Ukrainian Tu-143 drone, closely related to the Tu-141 albeit with a much shorter range, was\u00a0shot down<\/a>\u00a0in western Russia. However, the modified Tu-141, which was likely behind the recent attack on Russian Air Bases, has already demonstrated its capability to travel a very long range in the past.<\/p>\n In March this year, a bizarre incident occurred in which a Tu-141 Strizh reconnaissance drone, repurposed with an apparent warhead,\u00a0crash-landed<\/a>\u00a0in Zagreb, Croatia.<\/p>\n The drone flew nearly 350 miles from the Ukrainian border to Croatia\u2019s capital. It is believed to have a total range of more than 600 miles \u2013 enough to strike cities\u2019 military facilities and Control and Command centers inside the humongous territory of Russia.<\/p>\n Ukraine has been eyeing this capability for a long time because sending its limited combat aircraft like the Su-24 or Su-25 into Russian airspace would be a death knell for an already cornered air force.<\/p>\n Since the attack was launched in February, Kyiv has had to\u00a0take out<\/a>\u00a0several Soviet-era fighter jets from storage to fill in the deficit in its air power.<\/p>\n In October, the Ukrainian arms manufacturer Ukroboronprom revealed that the development of a kamikaze drone with a 1000-kilometer range and 75-kilogram warhead was almost complete, as previously\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0by EurAsian Times.<\/p>\n A month later, in November, Ukroboronprom published a post saying, \u201cThe next stage of UAV testing \u2013 On behalf of the Chief of the General Staff, we are getting ready for flight tests under the action of electronic warfare. Weather, on the one hand, becomes a problem; on the other hand, it\u2019s an additional test for the complex. A kind of crash test.\u201d<\/p>\n Drones can readily traverse the most contested airspace, especially on suicide missions. This is usually achieved by exploiting terrain cover, Nap of Earth (NOP) flight, and routing to avoid radars, observation posts, and populous regions, among other things. Only tips from deeply embedded intelligence operatives can aid in preventing such attacks, as\u00a0observed by<\/a>\u00a0Squadron Leader Vijainder K Thakur (retd) writing for EurAsian Times.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Tu-141-1.webp\")
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