Pelican Parts Forums - All Things Aviation Related

. This month, a beaten-up, Soviet-era propeller-driven plane taxied to a halt on a rural runway and two of Ukraine’s top air aces clambered out, one carrying a rifle. The pair, clad in olive-drab flight suits, are part of a low-tech solution to the high-tech problem of Russian drones.
The 56-year-old pilot, who learned to fly as a hobby before the war, and the gunner, 38, a former auto mechanic who had never been in a plane before the invasion, are part of a squadron dedicated to knocking down the unmanned Russian attack and reconnaissance aircraft that are the bane of ground troops and civilians.
In the past year, these two unlikely air warriors have flown around 300 combat missions as part of the 11th Army Aviation Brigade and downed almost half the unit’s total of 120 drones eliminated, according to its deputy commander, Col. Mykola Lykhatskiy.
Ukraine has some of the West’s most advanced air defenses, including the Patriot missile system. It also has F-16 jets that it sometimes uses to down missiles and drones. But it has also developed a series of lower-cost tactics to counter the threat from the skies, ranging from nets to signal jamming.
Soldiers and volunteers also man pickup truck-mounted heavy machine guns to try to take out explosive-laden Shahed drones. Others use vintage Soviet missiles fired from launchers made out of reused shipping containers.
Then there are the men and flying machines of the 11th. When a drone appears on military radar screens, crews scramble to their two-seater Yak-52 trainers, with a sliding glass canopy reminiscent of World War II fighters. Usually, they are airborne within 15 minutes.
Their squadron has brought military aviation back to its very beginnings in World War I, engaging the enemy at close range with a marksman leaning out of his cockpit with a gun.
The Yak-52 is so basic that it has no radar of its own and has to fly in the daytime, when the crew is guided by radio before visual contact. Their cockpit gets so cold in the winter they need thick jackets, gloves and old-school, fur-lined flying helmets.
Pilots sit near their planes waiting for the command to scramble. Like World War II pilots, they stencil drones they have shot down onto the side of their plane, which was later destroyed in a Russian missile attack on their air base. They now have another Yak.
Their main targets are Orlan and Zala reconnaissance drones, and Shahed explosive drones. The propeller-driven Orlan and Zala look like a miniature plane and kite, respectively, while the distinctive triangular shape of the Shahed has become one of the most recognizable sights of this war. The propeller-powered models of these drones fly at speeds of up to 115 miles an hour, making them easy to chase for the Yak, which can fly at over 180 miles an hour.
The successes of these planes and helicopters account for around 10% to 12% of the drones intercepted by Ukraine on a typical day, said Lykhatskiy.
Last month, around 11% of all long-range drones launched by Russia got through Ukraine’s air defenses, according to data analyzed by the Center for Information Resilience, a U.K.-based open-source investigations organization.
The Ukrainian prop planes will typically fly within 200 to 300 feet of the drone before the gunner opens the canopy, leans out and fires.
“There is such great new technology now, yet I am still hanging out of the cockpit shooting at drones with a shotgun,” said the auto mechanic-turned gunner. He likened the experience to shooting a gun while riding a horse. The gunner has tried a number of weapons and currently favors a German Haenel MK55 automatic rifle.

Sometimes pilots get so close they can use their plane’s wings to tilt the drone’s wings and send it off course, said Lykhatskiy. British pilots used that tactic in World War II against Germany’s V-1, widely considered the world’s first missile.
Russia is continually updating its technology and tactics. That includes putting cameras at the back of Orlan drones, allowing them to spot approaching planes or missiles and trigger evasive action, said Lykhatskiy.
The antidrone squadron’s aircraft are also targets for the Russians, whose air-defense missiles now cover as much as half of Ukraine, said Lykhatskiy, who still flies helicopter missions. The Yaks go closer to the front line because they are more maneuverable than helicopters.
Last year, the pilot, known by the call sign Maestro, and his gunner, called Ninja, said they spent 40 minutes trying to destroy an Orlan drone that began flying in tight circles after they approached.
Maestro said he flew the Yak underneath the Orlan and tried to match its movements but on a wider radius to allow Ninja time to line up his shot.
“Get ready,” Maestro would shout each time he took it within the sights of Ninja’s gun. Eventually they scored a hit, sending the Russian craft spiraling to the ground.
In May last year, they said their plane came under attack from a Russian air-defense missile, forcing them to descend at speeds of up to 450 miles an hour on the way down in an evasive maneuver.
Russia has targeted the squadron more directly. In July, its commander, Kostyantyn Oborin, was killed when the hangar he was in was hit by a ballistic missile.