During the shelling of Ukraine on Sunday, October 22, Russian troops launched two drones of an unknown type. Various sources evidence that these devices derive their propulsion systems purchased from the Chinese online marketplace, AliExpress.
This was stated by the spokesman of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Yuriy Ignat, writes RBC-Ukraine with reference to the broadcast of the “My-Ukraine” TV channel.
“There are wreckage, there are remnants, you can see what the enemy is making them from. In fact, the engines were bought there from AliExpress, and this is how the enemy will use them. This is not the first time when this “plane” is sculpted from simple materials, as they say, “from sticks” and launch it towards our country,” he said.
Despite this, according to the speaker, drones of this type are a dangerous target
“This UAV is of an attack type, it carries several kilograms of explosives, so it poses a danger. These two UAVs were launched from the northern direction,”
Ignat added.
During an interview at the United News telethon, Spokesperson of the Air Force of Ukraine Yurii Ihnat noted that such drones are assembled of
“whatever is available at hand: a simple engine that can be bought online, and an airframe can be assembled at any aeromodelling club.”
A closer look at one of those that got downed by Ukrainians in May 2023 allows to see the details they can be made of: a fuselage of plywood, a bottle instead a fuel tank, and more interestingly, a corner reflector that makes the drone times more conspicuous to radars. Experts suggested that the Russian idea is to send these drones in as decoys and force Ukrainian soldiers to spend valuable missiles on them instead of real targets.
The wooden drone taken down by Ukrainians on May 4th, and another identical air vehicle with corner reflectors / Photo credits: Joint Forces Command of AFU; Serhii Flash
The UAV downed on October 22nd. was equipped with the DLE-60 engine. This component can be easily acquired via AliExpress, for example, at a price below $500 apiece.
DLE-60 motor engine listed for safe on AliExpress
While in the air, it is impossible to find out whether such a drone carries any explosives or not, so it needs to be destroyed regardless, and hence succeeds in exhausting Ukrainian air defense.
“It is a target we have to react to and eliminate. That is exactly what we did today,” Ihnat stressed.
Worth noting, during the last russian missile shelling campaign throughout the fall and winter of 2022–2023, when the Shahed-136 munitions first appeared in russia, they were regarded as means for exhausting and distracting Ukrainian air defense in the same way.
However, at this point cruise missiles have been almost phased out, and Shaheds have practically become the main weapon of russian remote attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. Now they deploy these “drones of unknown type” to avert the attention of Ukrainian air defenses from the barrage of Shaheds.
At the same time, Ukraine also uses similar solutions and even looks into the option of producing drones even cheaper than the russian wooden UAVs. Such as the PPDS (Precision Payload Delivery System) aerial drones manufactured by the Australian SYPAQ company which are literally made of cardboard.
Sources: Defense Express ; RBC