Ukraine turns Yak-52 two-seat trainer into Russian drone hunter-killer

Ukraine turns Yak-52 two-seat trainer into Russian drone hunter-killer

so it was one of the more unusual sites of this war a Ukrainian Yak 52 trainer chasing down a Russian or an 10 reconnaissance drone somewhere over Odessa now this is an old Soviet eroplane and the guy in the back is believed to be shooting at the Drone possibly with a light machine gun but it’s not really clear exactly what he’s using eventually the drone’s parachute deploys and down it comes and it seems this isn’t a one-off there’s been pictures online of a yak with these kill markings painted on the fuselage and there’s even this footage shot from a Russian zala drone of a yak 52 closeup you can clearly see the chap in the back presumably getting ready to fire something so what does this tell us about the Drone war going on in Ukraine right now and the resourcefulness of Ukraine to use everything it has to counter these Russian arpad these remotely piloted Vehicles so yeah given the relative speed of rly piloted air systems their size as well makes them very difficult for modern f Jets to Target that’s always been one of the the things that we’ve looked for in modern fast Jets is speed at which they can travel the speed that they can move from point to point and so it becomes a disadvantage to be able to go as quickly as a modern fourth fifth gen fighter aircraft you simply haven’t got the time to Target to lock on to be able to fire the ordinance that you need to in order to be able to engage the target so something with a a lower stall speed something that’s more maneuverable something that can fly a lot slower gives you the the chance to actually maintain that presence in an area for longer to engage these targets which are notoriously difficult to shoot down from the air so what is the yak well the yak of Lev or Yak 52 is a Soviet design two- seat primary trainer aircraft used extensively by Eastern block countries for pilot training it was designed in the late 1970s and manufactured by the Romanian company Aerostar under license from Moscow it has a top speed of 177 miles an hour and a range of 342 Mi inside the tan cockpit there are dual controls for the instructor and student it also has a retractable tricycle landing gear which was unusual for Soviet aircraft at the time and with its powerful radial engine and its ability to withstand G forces it’s also a favorite with civilian Pilots performing aerobatics the alland 10 drone the yak shot down is really a staple of Russian reconnaissance and surveillance and is used in Ukraine to provide electronic Warfare the Russian Army’s Target acquisition and its artillery spotting and this incident really also shows how the line is being blurred between combat and non-combat equipment with creativity and Ingenuity you can repurpose bits of Kit and use them for an entirely different purpose something the ukrainians are very good at it’s important to remember that in any War you’re not just fighting that the physical fight on the ground against the enemy but you’re also fighting the the moral aspect and the morale aspect of of it all that you can send this footage back to your population and you can show them look at the advantages look at the developments that we’re making look at the effect that we’re having you know we’ve talked for a long time about how it’s very difficult to engage Aras well look now we’ve got a capability to do it look how impressive we are but also the the effect that that can have on your enemy at the same time we thought that these systems were largely invulnerable that we could put them up at will with very little danger now all of a sudden we can see that actually they are quite vulnerable so are we going to see more of this well the yak is obviously pretty vulnerable to Russian air defenses so they’ll have limited use but there’s great morale boosting effect of seeing this old trainer Downing Russian drones that frankly cost about the same as a yak and it’s another example of course of Ukraine’s absolute determination to win this war thanks for watching for more from forces news like And subscribe to our Channel

The Yakovlev Yak-52, a training aircraft that’s popular with civilian pilots performing aerobatics, is being repurposed by Ukraine for a more aggressive application – destroying Russian drones.

One of the key features of the war in Ukraine has been the ingenuity of Kyiv’s forces and their ability to turn non-combat equipment into offensive weapons.

An example of that happened over Odessa when a Ukrainian Yak-52 was filmed chasing down a Russian Orlan 10 reconnaissance drone.

More: https://www.forces.net/ukraine/ukraine-turns-soviet-era-two-seat-trainer-hunter-killer-russian-drones

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