Third Ukrainian drone strikes airbase inside Russia
Ukrainian Tu-141 “Swift” Drone
Carried a 120-kg Bomb to Moscow
Reporter
MOSCOW (February 6, 2023) —At the crash site of a Ukrainian drone near Kaluga, an OFAB-100-120 aerial bomb and arrow-shaped submunitions were found. An approximate picture of the morning incident with the participation of another UAV that arrived from Ukraine has also been restored.
To strike deep into Russian territory, the Soviet Tu-141 Strizh drone with an aerial bomb attached to it was once again used. The UAV flew at least 300 km unhindered in the Russian sky and headed towards Moscow. The air defense function in this case was performed by the Kaluga pines, for which the Swift caught on.
Telegram channels report that the wreckage of another Tu-141 was found on the territory controlled by Kyiv in the Konotop district of the Sumy region. Thus, only a combination of circumstances did not allow two Ukrainian drones to launch another strike on an object deep in Russian territory.
A similar incident occurred at the end of December last year. Then the Swift crashed in the Buturlinovka area of the Voronezh region. The UAV with the built-in bomb was heading towards the military airfield, but hit a pine tree and did not reach the target.
The bomb, found at the crash site of the Tu-141 near Kaluga, is designed to hit a variety of targets – from lightly armored equipment to aircraft in open positions. Inside the ammunition is about 50 kg of explosives and submunitions.
© 2018-2023 “Reporter”
Comment
Steven S — Hence the deployment of Russian air defense systems on the rooftops of Moscow.
Ukraine is using tracking data supplied in real time by US satellites and aerial reconnaissance.
How much longer before WW3 begins?
And for those who doubt that the US is actively involved in the war in Ukraine:
Ukraine’s Rocket Campaign Reliant on
US Precision Targeting, Officials Say
Isabelle Khurshudyan and Dan Lamothe / The Washington Post
KYIV, Ukraine (February 9, 2023) — Ukrainian officials say that they almost never launch HIMARS rounds without detailed coordinates provided by US military personnel situated elsewhere in Europe
Ukrainian officials say they require coordinates provided or confirmed by the United States and its allies for the vast majority of strikes using its advanced US-provided rocket systems, a previously undisclosed practice that reveals a deeper and more operationally active role for the Pentagon in the war.
The disclosure, confirmed by three senior Ukrainian officials and a senior US official, comes after months of Kyiv’s forces pounding Russian targets — including headquarters, ammunition depots and barracks — on Ukrainian soil with the US-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and other similar precision-guided weapons such as the M270 multiple-launch rocket system.
Ukraine Relies on Intelligence from
US for HIMARS Rocket Strikes
(February 9, 2023) — The Washington Post reported Thursday that Ukraine is reliant on coordinates provided or confirmed by the US and its allies to launch strikes using the US-provided HIMARS rocket systems, a revelation that demonstrates Washington’s deep involvement in the war.
The HIMARS is a precision-guided artillery system, one that Ukraine has employed quite a bit in its fight against Russia. One example is a January 1 HIMARS strike on a facility housing Russian forces in Donetsk that killed at least 89 Russian soldiers, one of the deadliest Ukrainian attacks of the war.
Citing three unnamed Ukrainian officials and one unnamed US official, the Post reported that Ukraine also relies on the US for targeting coordinates for similar precision weapons, including the M270 Multiple-Launch Rocket System. One senior Ukrainian official said that Ukrainian forces almost never launch strikes using these weapons without coordinates provided by US military personnel that are located at a military base in a different country in Europe.
Top Biden administration officials have acknowledged publicly that they have been providing Ukraine with intelligence to carry out attacks on Russian forces, but the details of that cooperation were not previously known.
The Post report said that Ukrainian officials identify targets they want to hit and the location, then provide that information to the US military for more accurate coordinates. The US military then usually sends the coordinates, although sometimes they don’t, and the Ukrainian forces don’t fire.
A senior Ukrainian official said that the cooperation shows the US can provide longer-range weapons without having to worry about them being used to hit inside Russian territory. “You’re controlling every shot anyway, so when you say, ‘We’re afraid that you’re going to use it for some other purposes,’ well, we can’t do it even if we want to,” the official said.
But a US official disputed the idea that Ukraine was running the targets by the US for approval and said the US only provides coordinates. Back in August, a top Ukrainian intelligence official said that they consult with the US before launching HIMARS strikes and that the US has veto power over the target. Ukraine could have more freedom now to choose its own targets as the Biden administration is less and less concerned about escalating the war.
Russia has made clear it views the US and Ukraine’s cooperation on targeting as an example of Washington’s direct role in the war, and Moscow isn’t alone in its assessment. Back in March 2022, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), former chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said the US wasn’t providing “real-time targeting intelligence” because that kind of cooperation “steps over the line to making us participate in the war.”
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