UKRAINE are using WW2-style planes to hunt down Russian drones on the battlefield in a blow to Vladimir Putin’s increasingly desperate war effort.
Air Marshal Greg Bagwell, a retired RAF commander, told The Sun Ukraine has taken inspiration from Britain’s famous Spitfires and are making headway in the skies against Vlad’s meatgrinder troops.
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In a scene reminiscent of WW2, dramatic video showed Kyiv’s propeller-driven Yak-52 plane in an intense dogfight with a Russian drone in the sky above southern Ukraine in April.
The 1970s two-seater training aircraft chased Vlad’s spy drone while a co-pilot in the backseat fired a volley of shots from a machine gun at the invading UAV.
Within minutes, Ukraine’s Spitfire-style plane – dubbed the ‘Drone Hunter’ – can be seen circling Russia’s Orlan UAV after it took damage from a direct hit over Odessa.
Ukraine’s military have been consistently adapting and improving their aircraft and weaponry since Vlad launched his barbaric full-scale invasion in 2022 – and the Yak-52 is the latest innovative project.
The Yak-52 is an old Soviet Russian training aircraft with a standard prop engine and was never designed for military operations – but Ukraine has changed that.
To have your highly sophisticated drone shot down by a 1970s prop aeroplane designed for training by somebody with a machine gun out of the back – that’s embarrassing for Putin.
Greg Bagwell
The plane’s low stall speed means it can manoeuvre quickly while hunting down drones and engage with the enemy UAVs in close-range dogfights.
Air Marshal Bagwell, who served for 36 years in the RAF, said the fact that Ukraine is using a relatively slow propeller-driven plane to take out Putin’s 21st century drone is “embarrassing” for Vlad.
The former combat pilot, who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, told The Sun: “There should be some serious questions here for Russia.
“To have your highly sophisticated 21st century drone shot down by a 1970s prop aeroplane designed for training by somebody with a machine gun out the back – that’s embarrassing.
“This will be sending ripples of concern back into Russia.”
Air Marshal Bagwell said using the Yak-52 is a safe and inexpensive way of defending Ukraine’s skies against the swarms of Russian drones scanning the skies.
The former Deputy Commander of RAF said: “If you go back in history, this is like the planes in WW1 and WW2 where the co-pilots were using hand weapons.
“We are seeing a rebirth of airpower back from 1914 and 1940s.”
He added: “The reason we are seeing this is because these Russian drones are quite a nuisance for Ukraine.
“There’s plenty of them and they’re cheap. But they fly in relatively predictable profiles so they’re quite vulnerable and fragile.
“It’s better to knock them out of the sky with a pretty basic aircraft like the Yak-52 is a lot better than using expensive 21st century missiles that cost a lot more than the drone they are shooting down.
“This is really just a way of finding another way of taking out a system in a really cost effective way.”
Air Marshal Bagwell explained Ukraine is relying on these slower aircraft for lighter combat roles – rather than wasting their all-important supersonic MiG-29 fighter jets that risk crashing while shooting at a low-flying drone.
This is really just a way of finding another way of taking out a system in a really cost effective way
Greg Bagwell
In December 2022, a MiG-29 was destroyed – and the pilot narrowly avoided death – when the fighter jet smashed into debris while blowing up a Russian drone.
Air Marshal Bagwell said it’s hard to tell the impact the Yak-52s are having on the battlefield – but he said it will be frustrating Vlad’s forces at the very least.
He explained: “This is not the answer to winning the war. But this is a really innovative way of dealing with a particular problem in an area where the Yak-52s have capability.”
Air Marshal Bagwell pointed to how Ukraine’s Yak-52s would be blown out of the sky if they were deployed close to the front lines.
But instead, Ukraine is positioning them further away from the front lines where they know Russian drones will be scouring the positions of Ukrainian soldiers and their intelligence hubs.
He said Ukraine is forming a layer of defence – like Britain did during the Blitz and WW2 – with the Yak-52s playing a key role in that.
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Air Marshal Bagwell explained: “It’s not dissimilar to London during the Blitz and the Second World War.
“You had British planes that would try and take out German bombers over Kent and then as they got closer to London, you’d have artillery firing and balloons.
“It’s all part of a very layered defence. The Yak-52 has got a role to play.
“It’s not a new way of fighting, it’s actually a very old way of fighting.
“But I think it’s symptomatic of ‘how do you solve the problem of a relatively cheap threat without having to spend an enormous amount of money in defeating it’.”
He added: “It’s just another example showing just how good Ukraine has been at innovating and adapting during the war. There’s no doubt about that.”
We shouldn’t underestimate the complexity of what Ukrainian troops are trying to achieve here
Greg Bagwell
Air Marshal Bagwell said it takes extraordinary skill to be able to shoot down a drone when you’re travelling at up to 170mph in a Yak-52.
The former combat pilot explained: “You have to be accurate, you have to know how far ahead to shoot and that’s really difficult to do.
“We shouldn’t underestimate the complexity of what Ukrainian troops are trying to achieve here.”
And by using less sophisticated aircraft like the Yak-52 to take down unarmed surveillance drones, Ukraine is freeing up their fighter jets to fire precision glide bombs at Russian troops.
Earlier this month, Ukraine said its forces hit Vlad’s beloved Su-57 stealth jet stationed on an airbase nearly 370 miles from the front lines.
RISE OF DRONE WARFARE IN UKRAINE
DRONES have been deployed in the war in Ukraine on an unprecedented scale as thousands are used daily to hunt down enemy forces, guide artillery and bomb targets – transforming modern land warfare.
Ukraine has become increasingly reliant on first-person-view (FPV) drones — nimble, target-seeking, kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Since early 2023, the cheap, explosive, flying machines have become one of Kyiv’s biggest success stories after its military ran perilously short on munitions due to long-stalled Western weapon shipments.
The attack UAVs have come to define the conflict, helped by constant streams of footage filmed onboard as they tail troops, blast Russian positions or smash into tanks worth millions with ruthless precision.
The potent quadcopters cost around £300, are largely made from off-the-shelf pieces of kit and as demand soars, an army of civilians are helping to assemble them in their homes.
Some are fitted with grenades or homebuilt bombs, others are used for reconnaissance missions to identify enemy positions and guide artillery fire.
Now, almost every fighting brigade in Ukraine has an assault drone company.
With the 600-mile front frozen in hellish trench warfare, the success of FPVs on the battlefield is “undeniable”, according to the commander of Ukraine’s attack drone operations.
The senior special forces officer “Arsenal” told The Sun the quadcopters-turned-munitions now successfully blitz Putin’s targets in three out of five operations.
And as the war moves into what Arsenal calls a more “technological phase”, he argued FPVs are increasingly vital to Ukraine’s success.
He said: “If Mavic (surveillance) drones are our eyes – for the adjustment of artillery fire, withdrawal of groups to positions, reconnaissance – then FPV drones are our sword, our strike force.”
Over two thirds of Russian tanks destroyed by Ukraine so far in 2024 have been taken out using FPV drones, a Nato official told Foreign Policy.
Their long-range capabilities also save countless lives as the drone operator can be stationed away from the frontline.
And drones are not just used on the battlefield, both Ukraine and Russia are hitting targets hundreds of miles deep into enemy territory using long-range UAVs.
They are highly cost effective means to blitz factories making weapons, military bases or energy facilities.
And yet, in a constant game of cat and mouse, both sides are developing increasingly sophisticated means of stopping drones using electronic warfare.
In response, Russia and Ukraine are racing to develop UAVs guided by AI instead of GPS that can easily be jammed.
Ukraine is counting on key allies to help in this mission and to send them more expensive, high-tech drones, but deliveries are not anywhere near the sufficient scale needed.
In 2023, Ukraine’s goal was to procure 200,000 drones. For 2024, Zelensky vowed they would build a million themselves.
Between January and February this year, officials revealed FPV production already totaled 200,000.
Satellite images showed the aftermath of the attack on the Akhtubinsk base in southern Russia.
If confirmed, it marks the first time Ukraine has struck a Su-27 jet, lauded as Moscow’s most advanced fighter plane in a huge blow to Putin.
And a Ukrainian warplane this month fired a weapon that struck a target inside Russia for the first time, a Ukrainian military source told Sky News.
On the same day, Putin acknowledged that thousands of his meatgrinder forces are dying in Ukraine each month.
The tyrant lost more than 1,200 troops in just 24 hours at the start of June in the deadliest day in its barbaric war against Ukraine.
The surge in casualties and strikes inside Russia comes after Western nations – including Britain and the US – gave Ukraine the green light to hit Vlad’s territory.
War of drones
And in yet another blow to Putin, Ukraine’s drones are continuing to destroy his tanks and weapons on the front lines as part of Ukraine’s extra lines of defence.
Drones have been deployed in the war on an unprecedented scale with thousands being used daily to hunt down Russian forces, guide artillery and bomb targets.
Over two thirds of Russian tanks destroyed by Ukraine so far in 2024 have been taken out by attack UAVs, a Nato official told Foreign Policy.
And Ukraine’s air defences have taken out thousands of Russian drones and missiles launched by a ruthless Vlad.
Since the full-scale invasion was launched, Ukraine has destroyed 11,221 Russian drones, 2,297 cruise missiles, as well as more than 23,000 tanks and military vehicles, according to Ukraine’s MoD.
War of attrition
Speaking about Russia’s losses, Air Marshal Bagwell said: “If you look at the statistics, you see almost every single weapon fired at Kyiv for example being shot out of the sky.
“We’re talking a 90-95% success rate of shooting down anything coming towards areas of high population.
“Russia knows that’s going to happen but Putin is playing a different game with a war of attrition.
“Putin’s aim is to basically tire out Ukraine and tire out the West so they stop resupplying them with weapons.”
He added: “But it also reflects badly on Russia that their so-called incredible equipment – their drones and hypersonic missiles – keep getting shot out of the sky.
“Russia is a regime that will suppress any negative views about their capabilities. But there will be plenty of people in Russia looking at the statistics and saying these aren’t working.”
Back in the trenches, Ukraine is desperately trying to hold the line as Moscow throws troops into meatgrinder assaults and seizes villages and towns.
Russia has been advancing in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk and further south – areas of the front that Kyiv has struggled to hold.
It came as Putin said he would only order a ceasefire if Ukraine ceded even more territory and vowed never to join Nato.
He also vowed to punish the West for using frozen Russian assets to bolster Ukraine’s war chest.
The G7 group of nations pledged a $50bn loan for Ukraine would be underwritten by interest payments from around $235bn of frozen Russian assets.
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