A new Ukrainian drone may have exploded a large Russian pipeline

A new drone bomber may have joined Ukraine’s growing climbing against the Russian oil industry. Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning, drones operated by the 14th Ukrainian separated from unmanned air vehicles hit a pumping station on the Druzhba pipeline along the Russian-Bilarus border in the Bryansk Oblast.

Druzhba pipeline is one of the largest in the world – a critical node of the most lucrative industry infrastructure in Russia.

The resulting fire illuminated the night sky, burning hot enough to register on the NASA fire detection satellites. “Judging by the fire, the strike was precise,” noted Wartranslated Estonian analyst.

Ukrainians have been attacking Russian oil for two years. But almost all strikes have involved drones loaded with explosives which, for the sake of efficiency, have simply gave themselves up in their targets. On the other hand, last night drones “bombed the Republic of Bryansk with bombs”, according to Nikolaev Vanek, a popular Ukrainian telegram channel.

Ukraine already operates old civilian sports aircraft, modified for the remote control, which can engage bombs of 220 pounds in their belly. It seems that, so far, the drones have simply crushed in their targets instead of freeing their bombs.

This makes sense for deeper strikes. An Aeroprakt A-22 sport plane loaded with explosives could have trouble flying further than 400 miles in return. But Ukraine has struck the Russian oil infrastructure of 800 miles or more beyond the first line of the wider war of Russia against Ukraine.

The sending of A-22 to unidirectional missions means that they can go to 800 miles instead of only 400. No need to drop a bomb when there is no expectation that the attacker will come back at the base.

The Druzhba raid last night targeted a pumping station just 25 miles from Ukraine, which means that the endurance of drone bombers was not a major planning consideration. They could release their bombs and preserve the possibility of returning to the base.

It doesn’t mean they did Back to the base. Remote landing is one of the most difficult aspects of drone operations in wartime. Rather than trying not to direct the unmanned bombers to a safe night landing, their operators may have chosen to drop the bombs, then guide the drones around a second pass to crash on the same target they have just bombed. A double robotics.

Anyway, if Ukraine’s largest drones are able to drop under-voluminous bombs, they can also be capable of missions there-assuming that, of course, their operators can understand how land them. These would be reusable weapons rather than a single use, each capable of exploding more than one refinery or a pumping station before meeting its end.

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