Ukraine's Now Fitting Guided Weapons to its Heavy Bomber Drones

A report from the military issues website The War Zone (TWZ) discusses what appears to be the latest Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) development centered on its Baba Yaga heavy bomber drone. The repurposed heavy industrial quadcopters that have been used to drop mortars and mines, act as relay stations for swarms of first-person view (FPV) drones now appear to have been modified to carry and fire guided projectiles.

The Russian milblogger site “Victory Drones” published images on Telegram on Aug. 2, that showed a captured Baba Yaga fitted with electronic boxes and antennae along with an unusual munition. The weapon, which is marked “BK-30F” (in Cyrillic), seems to have a possible laser guiding seeker head with a large, notched mid-section fragmentation warhead and guidance fins.

The weapon’s shape and size resembles a modified version of the front section of the Soviet-era 9K112 Kobra (NATO: AT-8 Songster) semi-automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) anti-tank guided missile. Originally intended to be fired from a tank’s main armament, this recovered munition seems to be designed as a free-fall guidable weapon, the Kobra’s missile motor and pop-out fins having been removed.

Fitting the Baba Yaga drone with some form of stand-off weapon is a logical progression. It stands to increase the distance of the drone from its intended target, reducing its vulnerability and potentially allowing it to directly engage armored vehicles and protected defensive positions.

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The Baba Yaga drone is already feared by Russian troops as it is noisy and, being mainly deployed at night, is harder to detect and bring down. Moscow’s troops coined the nickname which refers to a character in Slavic folklore – a ferocious old woman who fries and eats children – because of the fear its attack instills.

When combined with airborne repeaters and relays, the heavy drone is already capable of penetrating deep into Russian occupied territory. This new variation would allow it to strike targets from a greater distance and with greater accuracy into less well prepared and defended rear areas.

If this latest version of the Baba Yaga can use guided munitions, it could fulfil missions that only much larger and more expensive UAVs, and increasingly vulnerable systems such as the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones, have been capable of carrying out.

As the TWZ article points out, the drones’ arms race continues and is accelerating by the day. It states: “Nothing drives development… like conflict, and both sides are vying for an advantage.” This latest development therefore gives Ukraine a tactical, if temporary, advantage.