In a sharp escalation of its drone campaign targeting strategic industries deep inside Russia, Ukraine seems to have fitted Cessna-style light planes with remote controls, packed them with explosives and flown at least one of them more than 600 miles to strike a Russian factory in Yelabuga, 550 miles east of Moscow.

Ironically, the Russian factory produces—you guessed it—drones.

Russians on the ground recorded the shocking scene as the light plane dove onto the sprawling Alabuga Special Economic Zone industrial campus, where workers assemble Iranian-designed Shahed drones that, just like Ukraine’s DIY Cessna-style drone, can range as far 600 miles with an explosive payload.

    • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      8 months ago

      Ukraine is basically the embodiment of NCD. I saw a guy carrying a traditionally vehicle mounted AA gun with a buttstock welded onto it.

        • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          7 months ago

          Evidently it was just a vehicle mounted machine gun, so no dislocation, but still noncredible as fuck.

          • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            7 months ago

            I understand that the situation is not great and the stakes are very, very real.

            At the same time it’s kind of amazing how this whole affair has this “improvised tube-sock & axle-grease sticky bomb” perseverance to it.

            • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              7 months ago

              It really is incredible. They’ve actually done some crazy advanced stuff too, like using some sort of image algorithm to control kamikaze quadcopters to provide terminal guidance through short range signal jamming. I wouldn’t have even thought they would have those kind of capabilities.