this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2024
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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.

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[–] andrewth09@lemmy.world 151 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Superior Ukrainian gen 5 stealth technology: The Cessna 206.

[–] blackluster117@possumpat.io 78 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm just imagining a Cessna wearing a giant pair of Groucho Marx glasses.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 152 points 8 months ago (7 children)
[–] blackluster117@possumpat.io 41 points 8 months ago

You're amazing and I love you.

[–] safesyrup@lemmy.hogru.ch 18 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)
[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's a nose, actually. And eyebrows.

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[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago

Now this is Marxism I can get behind.

:: wiggles cigar ::

Whether or not he'd let me stand back there is another story.

[–] EchoCranium@lemmy.zip 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Next generation stealth plane: going back to basics.

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[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Damn, thought this was Non Credible Defense.

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago (4 children)

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

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[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 129 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Let’s be honest…. Probably less expensive and just as effective as a tomohawk.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 125 points 8 months ago (3 children)

A Tomahawk goes about 4 times faster, but it seems it doesn't matter if your enemy is incompetent.

[–] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 52 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Your comment made me go do the math and a TCM is, in fact, between 3.5 and 4 times faster than the fuel efficiency speed of a Cessna 206.

Kudos to you good Person.

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[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 37 points 8 months ago (1 children)

No, a Tomahawk is really only a little faster than a Cessna

/s

[–] HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world 42 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Surely the speed of the tomahawk depends on how hard you throw it?

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 48 points 8 months ago (1 children)

African or European Cessna?

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 20 points 8 months ago

How many coconuts did it carry?

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

You mean an Indigenous Peoples Hatchet Missle?

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 8 points 8 months ago

Yes, although I believe they are incompatible with the First Nations Attack Helicopter.

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 40 points 8 months ago (6 children)

It shouldn't be, though. The Russian military should have shot it down long before it got to the target.

[–] deafboy@lemmy.world 35 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] cAUzapNEAGLb@lemmy.world 18 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What a wild and spotted life that guy lives

[–] Maalus@lemmy.world 22 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I knew about him landing the plane. Didn't know that he stabbed a girl almost to death because she wasn't interested in him.

[–] variants@possumpat.io 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Just one of those things you do growing up

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[–] WindyRebel@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago (12 children)

Perhaps? I worry about this tactic being used in the US against targets. For all anyone knows, they’re a plane that just lost communication.

[–] ricdeh@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I mean, that kinda already happened

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[–] phillycodehound@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago (9 children)

But in that case fighter jets here are usually scrambled and if they don’t see anyone in the cockpit, they shoot the damn thing down

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 9 points 8 months ago

They had this eventuality covered !

an inflatable pilot from the movie Airplane!

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[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 29 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

This is the equivalent of wrapping ping pong balls in tin foil, putting a lighter underneath for a few seconds, and suddenly effective smoke bombs.

Edit: Yes, you can try this at home. But outside and obviously don't rip the fumes like a bong.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You forgot the part where the smoke bombs were able to travel a vast distance undetected after you threw them at a low speed.

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[–] sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 91 points 8 months ago (5 children)

This is pretty embarrassing for Russian air defense. Though, I also wonder if they were hesitant to shoot down an unidentified aircraft after multiple cases of friendly fire bringing down VKS aircraft. I'm also amazed that there was seemingly no Electronic Warfare (EW) systems in the area to prevent remote control of drones. Sure, there are EW countermeasures, but this seems like a pretty significant failure that this drone could be flown in from that far away.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 29 points 8 months ago

Having a massive landmass has been a huge boon to Russia historically, but we’re seeing the inverse now with all these long range precision guided munitions. They have too much land to cover with adequate air defense, it seems

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 26 points 8 months ago (1 children)

maybe it wasn't remote controlled as much as pre-programmed?

[–] philipsdirk@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Seems probable yes. Although it would still require GPS to keep its heading which can be jammed

[–] Xtallll@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (5 children)

Commercial aircraft have IMUs that carefully measure acceleration to get its position, IMUs are more accurate and reliable than GPS so GPS is the backup system.

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 9 points 8 months ago (4 children)

"dead reckoning" is the technical term for precalculated navigation, adjusting the path only from sensors like IMUs

(unless they used stuff like cameras and POI based navigation, but that seems unlikely)

I don't think it's correct to say normal planes use IMU more than GPS, they're all complementary. GPS tells the general direction and the IMU helps keeping the plane stable (no sudden jerks to turn when the GPS drifts). And ground radar tells the plane when it's too far off the path.

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[–] Rubanski@lemm.ee 13 points 8 months ago

They were busy jamming the European airspace

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[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 82 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 38 points 8 months ago

There were so many moments like that in this war. The grandma giving Russian soldiers sunflower seeds to put in their pockets so they grow when they die. The guy berating Russian soldiers saying "Every other woman here is a witch! All your dicks are going to fall off!" Zelensky saying "I don't need a ride I need ammunition."

Though I don't know what else I'd expect from people who told the Ottoman Empire to go fuck itself.

[–] thorbot@lemmy.world 79 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Absolutely badass. Slava Ukraini!

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[–] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago

In Soviet Russia plane is guided munition.

[–] dumbass@lemy.lol 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

MythBusters: Ukrainian War.

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[–] mindlight@lemm.ee 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Hmmm.... SU-27 replica on top of some "cheap" jet... Smoke from second engine.... Control it like it was a damaged SU-27 returned home....

Land it wherever Russia has their temporary airfields... Boom.

After a while we're going to see Russia shooting down their own jets 😁

[–] Sc00ter@lemm.ee 12 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Yeah pretty sure that's a war crime under the Rome Statute. Emphasis mine.

The law applicable in international armed conflict forbids “mak[ing] improper use of … the military insignia and uniform of the enemy …” (Art. 23(f) of the Hague Regulations of 1899 and 1907; Art. 39 of Additional Protocol I; Art. 8(2)(b)(vii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court). Not all uses of enemy uniforms are prohibited therefore; only “improper” uses. For example, wearing enemy uniforms in order to flee the fighting or escape capture does not run afoul of the law (U.S. Department of Defense Law of War Manual § 5.23.1.4). On the other side of the spectrum, engaging in attacks while wearing the uniform of the enemy is flatly prohibited, as affirmed in the treaty law and numerous military manuals (see here, here and here, for example), and is a war crime under the Rome Statute.

[–] deafboy@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's funny that there is an entire branch of law describing what is acceptable and what is unacceptable while mass murdering people.

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[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago

I like this direct, in-your-face style they have going. Very refreshing and potentially fatal.

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