Air Hunt! Ukrainian Yak-52 Pilots Pursue Russian Drones

This month, a battered Soviet-era jet landed on a rural airstrip and two of Ukraine's top pilots emerged, one carrying a rifle. The pair, dressed in green-and-brown flight suits, are part of a low-tech solution to the high-tech problem of Russian drones, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Two Ukrainian aces emerge from the cockpit — a 56-year-old pilot and a 38-year-old rifleman. They are part of the 11th Army Aviation Brigade, which destroys Russian drones terrorizing the front and civilian cities.

According to the brigade's deputy commander, Colonel Nikolai Likhatsky, in the past year alone, this pair has flown about 300 combat sorties and shot down almost half of the 120 drones eliminated by the unit. Two-seat Yak-52 training aircraft are used, which take off within 15 minutes of detecting the target.

The planes do not have radar, so they operate only during the day and in visual contact.

The gunner gets out of the cabin and opens fire with a rifle at a distance of 60-90 meters from the drone.

Sometimes the pilots even use the wings of their planes to shoot down the drone.

"Now there are such wonderful new technologies, but I still get out of the cabin and shoot at the drones with a rifle", commented the gunner with the call sign "Ninja", a former auto mechanic.

The main targets of the Ukrainian crews: reconnaissance "Orlan" and "Zala" and Shahed attack aircraft. The Yak-52 flies faster than most drones, allowing it to hunt them down.

However, the Russians are improving their aircraft — for example, installing cameras on the Eagles so they can detect aircraft and maneuver to evade them. British pilots used this tactic during World War II against the German V-1, which is considered the world's first rocket.

According to Likhatsky, the squadron's actions provide 10-12% of all drone interceptions in Ukraine on a typical day. Last month, about 11% of the Russian Federation's long-range drones managed to penetrate Ukrainian air defenses.

However, the risks to the crews are enormous: the Yak-52s flying close to the front and becoming a target for Russian missiles. In July, the squadron commander Konstantin Oborin was killed in a missile strike on the hangar.