The Vietnam and Afghanistan wars are two examples of the most advanced military technology not promising victory. Now in Ukraine, Russia is once again facing a smaller enemy that has managed to cause major damage using low-cost weapons. Last Sunday, it was reported that 41 Russian bombers were destroyed or successfully damaged using drones launched from containers.
The attack was carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) using hundreds of small drones hidden on the roofs of containers. When they arrived at the Russian bomber airbase, the drones were launched, which is believed to have been done by swat using the open source software Ardupilot. There are reports that artificial intelligence (AI) was used to direct the drones to attack the parts of the aircraft that caused the most damage.
The small quadrotor drones used successfully bypassed the air security and radar systems used by Russia to defend their airbase. Among the aircraft that were successfully attacked were the Tupolev Tu-95 Bear bomber, the Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire and the Beriev A-50 Mainstay AWACS aircraft.
The damage was estimated at $9 billion, with Russia losing 34% of its strategic bomber fleet. The attack has been nicknamed the Russian Pearl Harbor because of its surprise.
For Russia, this was a major blow to its ability to launch missile strikes on Ukraine. Production of the Tupolev Tu-95 Bear and Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire has been halted since 1991, with no replacements available. Before the attack, Russia was believed to have had 60 Tu-95s in service.
It was also embarrassing because the SBU operated from inside Russia and attacks could have been carried out on air bases in Siberia.