Slow and Steady: How Ukraine’s Sophisticated ‘Flying Bricks’ Pound Russia’s Drone Factory

In early April, a plane resembling an Aeroprakt A-22 Foxbat civilian plane could be seen hitting Russia’s drone plant and oil refinery in Tatarstan alongside a UJ-22 Airborne drone, 1,265 km away from Ukraine.

While Kyiv has talked of bolstering its drone program to offset the firepower disadvantage, the A-22 still stands as a peculiarity in the Ukrainian arsenal – as opposed to a purpose-built military drone such as the UJ-22 or the AQ-400 Scythe, the A-22 is a Ukraine-made, Cessna-style civilian aircraft widely used by the international aviation community.

Fabian Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo and security expert, even jokingly called it a “flying brick” with a radar cross-section “larger than Norway’s sovereign wealth fund” compared to modern missile systems.

However, Hoffmann also told Business Insider in an interview that the improvised A-22 is a “rather complex weapon system” with the need to incorporate explosives and guidance technology into the existing airframe.

A-22 Foxbat: Background information

Developed in the 1990s, the A-22 Foxbat is a two-seat, high-wing, tricycle landing gear ultralight aircraft manufactured by Aeroprakt in Kyiv.

“Aeroprakt-22 is an aircraft of classic aircraft layout. The design goal was to create an aircraft with maximum level of safety, comfort and rugged construction. It [has a] pleasant appearance, pilot seats situated side-by-side (preferred by many) and steerable nose wheel (for easier ground handling),” read Aeroprakt’s website.

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The company also boasted of the plane’s “amazing short field performance,” “unique visibility,” and “huge amount of room in the cabin,” among other strengths – all of which made it an ideal candidate for military drone conversions.

There are multiple variants available, but none of their top speed exceeds 200 kph – a number that is no match for S-300 missiles flying at Mach 6 (7,409 kph).

Speculations on military conversions

It’s not clear how the Ukrainian military converted the drones, but it can be assumed that the plane was equipped with remote flight control or self-contained guidance systems and explosives.

Some sources claim the civilian versions can carry a “useful load of over 600 pounds (272 kg),” which is not substantial in terms of firepower, but still more than five times higher than Shahed’s 50 kg warhead. This is slightly more weight than a US/NATO-standard general-purpose Mk-82 (500 pound/227 kg) aerial bomb used by many combat aircraft worldwide.

Some of the payload capacity would be used for the equipment converting it to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), reducing the amount of explosives that could be added in its conversion to a kamikaze drone.

It’s also possible the Ukrainian military modified the airframe and engine to increase the payload capacity during its single one-way operational flight, though this would be speculation at best.

As for controlling the drone, some Russian sources have speculated that Starlink satellite communication devices were used, though SpaceX’s official geofencing policies would likely render the service unavailable in Russia unless circumvented.

Again, it would not be possible to know for certain how Ukraine communicated with the remote control system believed to be on board the converted A-22, but it could be as simple as using a Russian SIM card, similar to how Moscow used Ukrainian SIM cards in their Shahed drones.

Why the A-22?

The fact that the drone flew more than 1,000 km to Tatarstan unhindered has demonstrated its effectiveness, but it also begs the question – how did it fly without being detected and downed by Russia?

According to a former F-16 pilot employed by Kyiv Post, the A-22’s slow speed could ultimately be its greatest advantage in sneaking through radar detections.

“[The drone would be] able to fly below the velocity of the pulse-doppler filter speed that makes the reduction of ground clutter or radar returns,” he said.

Meanwhile, Fabian Hoffmann told Business Insider that the drone's presumed low attitude when flying could also help it avoid radar detection – while it could still be identified visually, the fact that it got through more than a thousand kilometers showed that Russian air defense has a capacity issue.

“Once you have countermeasures in place, it should be really easy to shoot this thing down,” said Hoffman.

“And the problem is they don’t appear to have that.”

And the last and perhaps most probable explanation, as Kyiv Post posited – Russia might have simply thought it was an ordinary civilian plane.

This may be its biggest advantage that as a commercially available civilian aircraft, it may have been mistaken for a Russian oligarch/private pilot out for a joy ride.

The A-22’s innate stealth is that it hides in plain sight.

FACT-CHECKING

The Business Insider report hinted that converted A-22s were also used on May 9’s Ukrainian drone strike on an oil refinery in the Republic of Bashkortostan.

“Last week, an aircraft that looks similar to the A-22 was spotted in an attack on an oil refinery in the Republic of Bashkortostan,” the report read.

However, upon reviewing footage of the Bashkortostan strike, Kyiv Post believed the drone resembled the UJ-22 Airborne drone due to the lack of a thinning tail-end spotted on A-22 Foxbats.

For reference, here’s a picture of the UJ-22 drone.

However, Kyiv Post has managed to confirm visually that a drone resembling the A-22 Foxbat was indeed used in April’s strike on Tatarstan, where the plane’s silhouette corresponded to that of an A-22.

To date, it is not clear on how many occasions Ukraine deployed the converted A-22 drones against Russian targets.