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UKRAINE UKRAINE'S DRONE WARFARE Beyond Military: Ukrainian Drones STRIKE Russian Base Then THIS Happened… PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WIKoAw0Z7c
Ukrainian Drones STRIKE Russian Base - Then THIS Happened… Beyond Military Jul 22, 2025 333K subscribers ... 1,230,930 views ... 15K likes #beyondmilitary #ukraine #russia Ukraine’s drone war just changed everything. In this episode, we break down the rapid rise of Ukraine’s domestically produced long-range kamikaze drones, specifically the UJ-26 “Beaver” and AQ-400 “Scythe” and how they’re being used to devastating effect against Russia’s most advanced air defenses. With strikes reaching deep into Russian territory, including high-value targets like S-400 missile systems, radar installations, and strategic infrastructure, these low-cost, high-impact weapons are redefining modern warfare. We examine how these drones are manufactured, their range, and how Ukraine utilizes them to outmaneuver one of the world's most sophisticated air defense networks. From radar-blinding tactics to swarm attacks, this is a full-spectrum look at how Ukraine is using affordable drones to punch far above its weight. We also examine the S-400's vulnerabilities, the radars Ukraine has targeted, and what this means for the future of air defense in contested airspace. If you want a clear, tactical breakdown of how Ukraine’s long-range drones are rewriting the rulebook, this is it. Getty Images: Video supplied by komisar / Creatas Video via Getty Images/ Ideal Image – Clip [907671174](https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail...) Video supplied by Russian Defense Ministry / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images/ Ideal Image – Clip [2169191344](https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail...) Video supplied by Russian Defense Ministry / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images/ Ideal Image – Clip [2170059738](https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail...) Video supplied by AFPTV / AFPTV via Getty Images/ Ideal Image – Clip [502106920](https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail...) Video supplied by komisar / Creatas Video via Getty Images/ Ideal Image – Clip [908001762](https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail...) Video supplied by komisar / Creatas Video via Getty Images/ Ideal Image – Clip [905603850](https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail...) Video supplied by Russian Defense Ministry / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images/ Ideal Image – Clip [2160543901](https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/...) Video supplied by o_ned / Creatas Video via Getty Images/ Ideal Image – Clip [610003698](https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/...) Wikimedia: https://sites.google.com/ytmgltd.com/... #ukraine #russia #beyondmilitary Peter Burgess COMMENTARY I still have some childhood memories of warfare ... and unmanned aerial vehicles. I was growing up in Surbiton, a suburban community just outside Londone in Surrey. Later in the war the Nazis started to launch 'doodle-bugs' ... the VI flying bomb ... essentially a cruise missile ... an umanned aircraft carrying explosives ... from occupied France in the direction of London and some other major British cities. There were several paths followed by these unmanned devices ... with one of them passing over Surbiton. Most of them crashed and detonated before they reached Surbiton, but a few had enough fuel to overfly central London and get to Surbiton before running out of fuel, crashing and exploding. When I was about 4 years old, one of these V1s crashed and exploded at the 'top' of our street, completely destroying three houses. All the houses in the area lacked glass in any of the windows, and many houses had 'holes' in their roofs including our house. A blue tarpaulin covered the rood to keep the rain out! I was way too young to 'understand' war and what was going on. Because of this I was not 'scared' in the way my parents must have been scared. My parents were more intelligent than most. Very early in the war they build an 'air-raid shelter' in our garden, The inside dimensions of the shelter were about 8ft. by 8ft. by 8ft. ... the walls were reinforced concrete about 6 inches thick and the roof reinforced concrete about 18 inches thick. This 'concrete box' was buried deep enough to have a further 2 or 3 feet of soil to bring everythng to grade!. My parents and I slept in this shelter every night for the duration of the war. For half this time, an addition double bed was double decked in the shelter and two neigbors slept with us for safety. With this as my embedded reference point ... the performance of the modern contemporary Ukrainian drone teams is spectacular. Peter Burgess Transcript 0:00 At 0347 local time on June 26, 2025, a Russian S400 radar dish sweeps the Crimean sky with enough electromagnetic energy to cook a turkey at 10 km. In 15 minutes, 17 Ukrainian drones will turn that same radar and the entire S400 battery into a $500 million paperweight. The lead Beaver drone you see here has been airborne for over 2 hours at this point, burning through fuel at 12 L. At current consumption, that gives it 19 minutes to find the target, 2 minutes to destroy it, and 2 minutes in case it messes up. The math is tight, and the margin for error is zero. The formation spreads across a 3 km front at exactly 50 m altitude. At this height, the Earth's curvature creates a radar horizon of roughly 25 km. Basic geometry that no amount of Russian engineering can overcome. It's like sneaking up behind the couch. As long as you stay 1:00 low, the radar has no line of sight. Just like your kids don't see you coming when you're about to confiscate the iPad. The S400's mighty radars can track ballistic missiles in space, but they can't see through dirt. Physics doesn't negotiate. Behind the seven beavers, 10 AQ400 sites maintain station. They look exactly like what they are, plywood boxes with wings assembled in furniture factories by workers who used to make kitchen cabinets. Each scythe cost a base price of $15,000 with an additional $30,000 for guidance systems. The ROI would make any Wall Street banker salivate. 17 drones totaling $425,000 attacking a battery worth500 million. That's if they can make it there first. Navigation relies on triple redundancy because Crerea has been a GPS jamming nightmare since 2022. Each drone carries a commercial GPS chip that costs $12 on Alibaba, backed up by accelerometers and 2:02 gyroscopes that track every movement. The third system is pure Ukrainian cleverness. optical cameras comparing terrain to stored satellite imagery. Although Russia may jam satellites, they can't jam eyeballs. At 0415, the swarm executes its program dispersal. Seven drones climb to 80 m, still below most radar coverage, but high enough for diving attacks. Five maintain 50 m and five drop to 30 m. This creates what drone operators call a vertical spread, forcing defenders to divide their attention across multiple altitude bands. On the receiving end, the S400 battery near Zcoy runs its standard overnight routine. 92 N2E Gravestone radar rotates once every 12 seconds, scanning for threats that aren't supposed to be there. The 91 N6E Big Bird searches deeper, looking for high altitude intruders. Four launchers stand ready with 16 missiles. Two Pancer S1 3:01 units provide close-in defense. The numbers say this battery should be untouchable. The reality says 17 drones are about to prove otherwise. At 0415, this operator stares at his 92 N2E display showing 17 contacts at 32 km. His Pancer S1 battery can engage about three simultaneous targets, maybe four if the computer doesn't overheat. I'm not a math major, but I know that 17 targets divided by two pancers is more than four each. And that's if they can even see them. The Pancer's maximum engagement range is 20 km. Its effective engagement envelope against aircraft is 15 km. Against missiles 10 km, and just 5 km against targets with radar crosssections below 0.1 m. These drones register at 0.05 m. The math says he needs to wait until they're inside 5 km for any chance of a 4:00 hit. But here's the problem. 17 drones spread across a 3 km front approaching at 48 m/s. Time from 5 km to impact 104 seconds. The pancer can't fire 1257 E6 missiles without reloading, and it takes 5 minutes to reload. The time is not on their side. The targeting computer starts its calculations, but the numbers don't look too good. Each engagement requires 2 seconds for target acquisition, a second to fire the missile, 6 to 8 seconds of flight time to the target, and about 2 seconds to assess the damage. This means he needs 11 to 13 seconds per drone under perfect conditions. 17 drones time 12 seconds equals 204 seconds. He has 98 seconds. It's like realizing your wife's birthday is today and you've got 10 minutes to find a gift, a card, and a believable excuse. Good luck, buddy. 20 km north, the 91 N6E Big Bird radar continues its 5:03 rotations, oblivious to the approaching swarm. This L-band monster can see 600 km out and track 300 targets simultaneously. It can detect a baseball at 100 km, but its minimum altitude coverage is 100 m. The drones at 50 m might as well be submarines. The S400's launchers remain in standby mode. Each 5P85TE2 vehicle carries four missiles. The battery has 16 in total. In theory, they could engage 16 targets simultaneously. In practice, they need the 92 N2E radars to provide targeting data. Without radar locks, those $ 1.5 million missiles are just expensive decorations. At 0425, the geometry gets worse. The drones adjust course, spreading their formation to 5 km. Now they're approaching across a 90° arc. The Pancer's turret can traverse at 45°/s, 6:02 but tracking multiple targets across that arc means constant sloowing back and forth. More time lost. The other pancer unit positioned at 800 meters south faces the same equation with the same result. Between them, they have 24 ready missiles plus 16 reloads. Against aircraft or helicopters, that's plenty. Against a coordinated drone swarm, they'd need to hit with every single shot, and even then, they'd run out of missiles before targets. The irony is perfect. The radars can track objects in orbit. Its missiles can reach into the stratosphere. But against 17 drones built in basement flying lower than treetop height, it might as well be defending itself with harsh language. At 0445 and just a few kilome out, the Panther's targeting computer finally achieves lock on drone number one, then drone number two, then it stutters, trying to assign priority to 15 more targets, all presenting identical 7:01 thermal signatures, all boring in at 48 m/s. The operators can hear the computer's cooling fan scream as it tries to solve 17 simultaneous engagement equations. The first 57 E6 missile leaves the rails 12 seconds later, it accelerates to Mach 3 in 2 seconds. Racing toward drone number three, the computer has decided that the closest threats are already within the minimum range. Flight time to target 6.3 seconds. The proximity fuse searches for radar returns large enough to trigger detonation. It finds nothing. The missile passes within 2 m of the beaver and continues into the dawn sky. Seeing the problem, the operator overrides the computer and switches to manual targeting. His optical sight shows the drones clearly now. Dark shapes against the lightning sky. He selects a scythe, larger and supposedly easier to hit. The second missile launches. This time the proximity fuse works, shredding the 8:01 drone with tungsten fragments. One down, 16 to go. The math is relentless. Each successful engagement takes a minimum of 11 seconds. He's already burned 21 seconds. The lead drones are now at 2.8 km. Time remaining 52 seconds. Missiles remaining 10. From Belbeck airfield 85 km northwest, two SU35S fighters launch on Afterburner. The pilots received scramble orders 90 seconds ago. Patrol reported possible drone activity near critical infrastructure. At maximum thrust, they're burning 400 L per minute, rocketing toward Jenkoy at 1,900 km hour. Flight time 8 minutes. At this rate, they'll arrive just in time to photograph the wreckage. The second pancer joins the fight 10 seconds later. Its operator firing in full automatic mode. The computer launches missiles as fast as the system allows. One every 3 9:01 seconds. Tungsten fragments still in the air like lethal confetti. Two more drones disappear in puffs of smoke and plastic. 14 remaining. But physics has entered the chat. The drones execute their final attack profiles. The high group begins diving attacks at 30° angles, increasing their closure rate to 65 m/s. The low group drops to 20 m, using terrain masking to break radar locks. The middle group maintains steady approaches, forcing defenders to choose between multiple threat vectors. Just both paners run dry. 24 missiles expended, five drones are destroyed, and 12 remain. Reload time 5 minutes. Time to impact 68 seconds. The operators switched to cannon mode, but everyone knows the statistics. Trying to shoot these drones down with that is like hitting a mosquito with a sniper rifle. The S400 launchers finally receive 10:01 authorization to engage, but it's no use. Without the 92N2E radars to provide precision targeting, they're firing blind. The 248 N6E missiles launch away. $3 million worth of desperation arcing into the sky. They're designed to hit aircraft at 200 km. At a distance of 2 km, they are useless against drones. Both missiles self-destruct after failing to acquire targets. At 0447, the Russians know they're cooked. 12 drones inside 500 m approaching from seven different vectors at three different altitudes. The defensive system can't traverse fast enough to engage them all. The operators know what's coming. They can see it, track it, and even smell it as they're peeing their pants, but can't stop it. The operators watch as 12 dots converge on the battery's vital systems. Two heading for each 92 N2E radar, two 11:00 for each 916E, four targeting launchers. The Pancers cannons traverse frantically, spraying 30 mm rounds that miss by meters. But they won't do anything to stop what's about to happen next. At exactly 0447, the First Beaver connects with the primary 92 N2E radar. It's 20 kg shaped charge turning $50 million of Russian engineering into a work of modern art. The shape charge you see detonating now performs exactly as designed. Ukrainian engineers calculated the optimal standoff distance, cone angle, and explosive composition. The copper liner, 3 mm thick, inverts and stretches into a jet, moving at Mach 23. It punches through the radar's protective housing, the wavegu assembly, and the transmitter modules, and emerges on the other side. 37 seconds later, the backup 92 N2E takes a direct hit from drone number 12:00 seven. This beaver approached from the opposite direction, catching the radar mid-rotation. The shape charge hits the antenna feed horn, the most vulnerable point in the entire system. The explosion travels down the wave guide like a directed energy weapon, frying every component in sequence. The radar dish, 8 m in diameter and weighing 3 tons, shears off its mount and crashes to the ground. At 0448 and 22 seconds, two sides hit the northern Big Birds simultaneously. With 32 kg warheads, they don't need shaped charges. Pure explosive force does the job. The first warhead cracks the radar's base structure. The second, arriving 7 seconds later, finds weakened metal and tears the entire assembly apart. The 40 ton antenna array designed to survive 150 km per hour winds collapses like a house of cards. The battery is now completely blind at 0448 and 45 seconds. 13:02 Scythe number 13 finds pay dirt. The 5P85 TE2 launcher. 40 tons of sophisticated military hardware takes a direct hit above missile tube 3. The warhead punches through 20 mm of armor plate and detonates inside the magazine. The 48 N6E missiles solid propellant, stable under normal conditions, becomes unstable when exposed to detonation shock. It ignites. Solid rocket propellant burns at 2800° C. The missile tube designed to channel thrust downward during launch now channels it upward. The pressure spike hits 300 atmospheres in.3 seconds. The tube ruptures. Burning propellant sprays across missile 2 and 4. They ignite. In 1.3 seconds, 1,200 kg of propellant converts three missiles worth $4.5 million into the world's most expensive fireworks show. At 0449 and 10 14:03 seconds, the last three beavers converge on the southern big bird radar. Three impacts, three detonations, one result. The radar, already damaged by shrapnel from the burning launcher, takes 60 kg of high explosives in rapid sequence. It doesn't collapse, it disintegrates. Fragments rain down across a 200 m radius. At 0450 and 35 seconds, the SU35S fighters arrive. The flight leader radar shows no returns for the S400 battery. The radars that would normally guide them are burning wreckage. Visual contact reveals the full catastrophe. Four distinct fire sources. Black smoke columns rise 500 m. Secondary explosions are still cooking off. The pilots circle once, confirming what their sensors already show. The S400 battery that protected Western Crimea for 3 years was 15:00 completely destroyed in just over 3 minutes. 17 drones built in a basement, powered by lawnmower engines, and guided by smartphone processors have proven that in modern warfare, ingenuity is the great equalizer. Bye for now.

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