Foreign Wars and conflicts

Video from the war front

The trail of fire of the Ukrainian Tu-143 jet drone, launched from a giant cannon

Footage released on the social networks of the Kiev army, shows the flight of the unmanned reconnaissance plane, used to monitor Russian troops from above: the devices, used by both sides, allow to kill soldiers in the trenches

16/03/2023

A video shot in an unspecified location shows the impressive trail of fire, left by a Ukrainian Tu-143 jet drone, which is fired from a giant "cannon" at the front. The video - released on the social networks of the Kiev army - shows the flight of the unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, used to monitor Russian troops from above: the devices, used by both sides, Russia and Ukraine, allow to kill soldiers in the trenches identifying them even from considerable heights, and have proved decisive in different phases of the conflict.

The "Tupolev Tu-143 Reys", was a Soviet unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, in service with the army of the former USSR (and a number of its Warsaw Pact and Middle Eastern allies), during the late 70s and 80s. Since the beginning of the "special operation", it has been used massively especially by Ukraine, which has also used it - according to Russian sources - to try to hit the enemy across the Ukrainian border, in Russian territory.

One of the "blitzes" of the device last July, when there were explosions in the Russian city of Belgorod, with 4 dead. According to the governor of Belgorod Oblast, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the Russian army had managed to shoot down "three Ukrainian missiles launched against the city, near the Ukrainian border", news then confirmed by the spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, who said that it was "cluster munitions: the army also shot down two Ukrainian Tu-143 drones "loaded with explosives" and directed towards the city of Kursk, also close to the Ukrainian border."