Ankara, Turkey. Despite three weeks of Russian bombing, Ukraine maintains a tough defense of its cities, using Turkish-made drones to launch surprise attacks on invaders with a lethal efficiency that has surprised Western military experts.
Bayraktar TB2 drones, which carry laser-guided light bombs, typically excel in low-tech conflicts, and Turkey has sold them to more than a dozen countries, including Azerbaijan, Libya, Morocco and Ethiopia.
According to Jack Watling of London’s Royal United Services Institute, the drones were surprisingly successful in the early stages of Ukraine’s conflict with Moscow, before the Russians could establish their air defenses on the battlefield.
An unspecified number of US-made drones will be among the additional $800 million in military aid to Ukraine announced on Wednesday by President Joe Biden. It also includes 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 100 grenade launchers, 20 million small arms rounds, as well as grenade launchers and mortar rounds.
The White House is considering giving Ukraine access to US-made Switchblade drones that can fly and strike Russian targets, a person familiar with the matter and not authorized to speak publicly said. It was not immediately clear whether the new drones that Biden said would be delivered to Ukraine would be one or the other.
“(Turkish TB2s) should not have a significant impact, because they are medium-altitude, slow-flying aircraft with a large electromagnetic signature and a large cross-section. And the Russians have very powerful air defense systems, so they must be shot down. The terrain is very open and provides good radar coverage,” added Watling.
A “Bayraktar TB2” (armed unmanned aerial vehicle) is seen in Istanbul, Turkey on February 22, 2021. BAYKAR / Handout / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
He said Ukrainian forces “essentially flew in at low altitude and then moved in and raided with them. Thus, they struck at possible targets.
Over time, as the Russians become more organized and push their air defenses, Watling said that “the freedom to use these drones is decreasing. So what we’re seeing now is that Ukrainians have to be careful about when they use them. .”
At a parliamentary briefing on March 9, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace praised the drones, as well as other weapons donated to Ukraine by the West.
“One of the ways they provide close air support or actual fire in depth is with Turkish TB2 UAVs that deliver ammunition to their artillery and even their supply lines, which are incredibly important in slowing down or blocking the Russian advance. , Wallace said.
Drones have also made headway on social media. Their aerial photography of the destruction of Russian armored vehicles has become a key tool in Ukraine’s information war.
Vasily Bodnar, Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey, tweeted a video of the drone attacks, including a video that showed a convoy of destroyed Russian military equipment.
“Masallah” or “Glory to God,” he wrote in the caption to one of the videos.
The video for the song “Bayraktar” – with the sounds of explosions dedicated to beats – was posted on YouTube and broadcast on Ukrainian radio.
“So as long as they are still flying, as long as they are still armed, they will be useful. Mostly they will be useful for the propaganda side,” said Aaron Stein, director of research at the US Foreign Policy Research Center. institute. “The videos have delighted people because you can see the airstrike in high definition.”
Turkey began selling TB2 drones to Ukraine in 2019, and Kyiv has used them to fight Russian-backed separatists in eastern Donbas, a move Moscow has called “destabilizing.”
Turkish officials declined to disclose details of the sale of drones to Ukraine, including their number and resupply by Kiev. According to independent estimates, the number of TB2 in Ukraine ranges from 20 to 50.
The drones, each estimated to cost less than $2 million, are manufactured by Baykar, a defense company owned by the family of Selçuk Bayraktar, son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Bayraktar is the chief technical officer of Baykar.
TB2 is credited with helping to rebalance conflicts in Libya, as well as Turkish ally Azerbaijan in the fight against Armenian-backed forces in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2020.
Ankara has also used drones against Kurdish fighters in Turkey and northern Iraq, and against Kurdish fighters in Syria.
Such less expensive drones are likely to have a long-term impact on the war as a useful attrition tool, Stein said, as well as attract the attention of more expensive enemy aircraft.
“I would call it the Toyota Corolla of drones… It can’t do everything your high-end sports car does, but it does 80% of it, right?” he said. “So even for a high-end military like the US, the basic concept of using a vulnerable, low-cost platform to strike against superior forces is inherently valuable.”
CBS Evening News host and editor-in-chief Nora O’Donnell traveled to the Ukrainian-Polish border as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked the fastest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. O’Donnell shares first-hand accounts of Ukrainian refugees and talks about how NATO prepares as Russia pushes the war in Ukraine to the border with Poland in the 30-minute documentary “Nora O’Donnell Reports: Crisis in Ukraine” which will premiere on Friday, March 18. , at 7:30 pm ET on the CBS News app.
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