Video of the emergency response<\/a>\u00a0following the Tuesday attack on the Alabuga Special Economic Zone industrial campus, 600 miles from the Ukrainian border, reveals that the drone\u2014possibly two of which struck the campus\u2014is based on an Aeroprakt A-22. A high-wing, single-propeller sport plane with room for two.<\/p>\n That the Ukrainians could convert an A-22 into an explosive drone strongly implies the strike on the Alabuga facility, which reportedly assembles Iranian-designed Shahed drones for Russia\u2019s own war effort, won\u2019t be the last for this new drone type.<\/p>\n The simple, reliable and innocuous A-22 after all lends itself to drone conversion. And equally importantly, it\u2019s made in Ukraine\u2014and it\u2019s affordable at just $90,000 a copy.<\/p>\n To put that into perspective: an A-22-based drone, capable of traveling 600 miles through Russian air defenses to deliver\u2014with high accuracy\u2014potentially hundreds of pounds of explosives, costs just slightly more than a single American-made Javelin anti-tank missile costs. Ukrainian troops fire Javelins by the hundred.<\/p>\n An A-22 drone is, on a production level, scalable. Thus, \u201cwe expect that more attacks will be attempted in the future,\u201d the Ukrainian Conflict Intelligence Team\u00a0stated<\/a>\u00a0after analyzing the Alabuga raid, which reportedly injured 14 people and damaged either the drone factory or a nearby dormitory for workers.<\/p>\n The A-22 is the kind of plane a middle-class hobby pilot might buy for fun jaunts over the local airport. \u201cIf you’re looking for a rugged aircraft that’s easy to handle, has amazing short field performance, yet is capable of cruising at 95-plus knots, while (legally) carrying a good load\u2014you’ve come to the right place!\u201d Arizona-based Leighnor Aircraft, which deals the A-22 in the United States,\u00a0boasted on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cControl and safety,\u201d Leighnor stressed. \u201cStalling is a non-event, even without flaps. … At slow speeds, the controls are light and effective\u2014[and] at higher speeds they firm-up and make cruising a more relaxed affair.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCorrectly proofed, metal structures are durable and resistant to the external environment,\u201d the company added. \u201cThe best news yet, it all starts for less than $90,000!\u201d<\/p>\n We don\u2019t know exactly how the Ukrainians transformed the A-22 into a killer drone, but it\u2019s not hard to guess. Remember that, in 2019, the U.S. Air Force stripped the seats and controls out of a 1968-vintage Cessna 206 light plane and installed, in their place, a set of computer-driven servos.<\/p>\n \u201cThe system \u2018grabs\u2019 the yoke, pushes on the rudders and brakes, controls the throttle, flips the appropriate switches and reads the dashboard gauges the same way a pilot does,\u201d the Air Force Research Laboratories\u00a0explained<\/a>. \u201cAt the same time, the system uses sensors, like GPS and an inertial measurement unit, for situational awareness and information-gathering. A computer analyzes these details to make decisions on how to best control the flight.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cImagine being able to rapidly and affordably convert a general aviation aircraft, like a Cessna or Piper, into an unmanned aerial vehicle, having it fly a mission autonomously, and then returning it back to its original manned configuration,\u201d said Alok Das, an AFRL scientist. \u201cAll of this is achieved without making permanent modifications to the aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n In the case of the A-22 drone, the Ukrainians clearly aren\u2019t worried about uninstalling the autonomous controls. The drone is, in effect, a slow cruise missile. It\u2019s not supposed to return to base.<\/p>\n And as a cruise missile, the A-22 is a real bargain. Counting the price of the new controls and the explosive payload, an A-22 drone might cost a few hundred thousand dollars.<\/p>\n That\u2019s cheaper than Ukraine\u2019s locally-made Neptune cruise missile, which costs around $500,000. And it\u2019s\u00a0much\u00a0<\/em>cheaper than the $3-million Storm Shadow cruise missiles Ukraine has received from the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n As a bonus, an A-22 with its approximately 600-mile range outdistances the Neptune and the Storm Shadow, both of which travel no farther than 200 miles.<\/p>\n The main downside of the sport plane cruise missile is its low speed: at most, 126 miles per hour, compared to the 600 miles per hour a Storm Shadow can sustain.<\/p>\n In theory, that makes an A-22-based drone vulnerable to Russian air defenses. In practice, air defenses are spread thin across the vastness of Russia\u2019s interior. There\u2019s plenty of room for Ukraine\u2019s new cheapo sport-plane drones to roam\u2014and strike.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0x0-1.webp\")