Recently, several drones of Iranian have been unlimited in Ukraine and have achieved many outstanding results on the battlefield. This made some Russian media think about it and "provide suggestions" for their drone careers in the country.
Someone had a lot of brainstorms and actually took out the joke " J-6 changed to suicide drone" as evidence, and suggested changing the MiG-21, MiG-23 and even the Tu-154 large passenger plane into suicide drone.
Russian media SVPRESSA website published an article by author Alexander Hirokolad, claiming that if "half the old weapons in the Russian army's inventory" are sent to the Donbas frontline, the surrounding Ukrainian defense system can be wiped out within two or three days.
Hirokolad focused on how to efficiently utilize Russian military's stock weapons, from the old 152mm howitzer to the 8K14 "Scud" ballistic missile, and then talked about the Iranian "Witness-136" (Geranium-2) suicide drone with a good record.
Iran's "Witness-129" and "Witness-136" were introduced by the Russian army, and quickly entered actual combat in Ukraine and even began to hunt down the "Hamas" rocket launcher. However, Hirokolad believes that instead of consuming scarce new drones, it is better to modify old aircraft, such as the An-2 transport.
He also gave an example that An-2 was hijacked in the Soviet Union many times in the last century, but it was difficult for the Soviet supersonic fighter to capture such low-speed transport aircraft. During the Yugoslavia civil war, an An-2 aircraft was attacked by 11 portable missiles launched from the ground, but An-2 successfully escaped due to minor injuries.
Hirokolad even took the Chinese FH-98 drone as an example. This drone was actually modified from Y-5 transporter , and its prototype is An-2. This drone has an autonomous flight capacity of 1,200 kilometers and can transport 1.5 tons of cargo. Russian author believes that this civilian drone actually has military value.
In addition, the author also took the "J-6 drone" as an example, claiming that the US satellite shot "300 such drones" at China's coastal airports. He also quoted a familiar internet joke, claiming that this fighter can be used to convert it into a suicide drone to conduct long-range attacks on enemy targets.
He also believes that "the bigger the aircraft, the greater the damage it will cause to the enemy." It is enough to just install a control system on a retired aircraft.
Therefore, Hirokolad called for hundreds of retired MiG-21, MiG-23 and other fighter jets, as well as retired Tu-154, An-10 and other passenger aircraft, plus An-2 transport aircraft, to be converted into suicide drones. He claimed that the Tu-154 can carry 10-16 tons of explosives or napalm bombs, which is enough to destroy any targets in Ukraine, including power plants, railway stations, dams and airports, etc.
However, the author does not agree with this kind of imagination. The "J-6 is converted into a suicide drone" is actually a very inefficient weapon, far less than genuine suicide drones such as "Habbi" and "Geranium-2".
First of all, "retired fighter jets only need to install one control system" is a misunderstanding. The aerodynamic shape of a fighter is much more complex than that of a regular drone, and the design of an unmanned control system is also more complicated. It cannot be used just by installing one. Each fighter must be redesigned for an unmanned control system, which is much higher than that of an ordinary drone, and its control accuracy is far less than that of an ordinary drone.
Secondly, the takeoff of a fighter requires a long runway, even if it is a one-time takeoff. The hundreds of MiGs will be converted into drones, which will take up about 10 airports’ hardware space in vain. Moreover, the logistics maintenance of fighter jets is much more expensive than that of ordinary drones. Without reliable maintenance work, old fighters may crash as soon as they take off.
In contrast, genuine suicide drones do not occupy airport space at all. The "suicide mission" of hundreds of MiGs can be replaced by "Habbi" and "Geranium-2" only require a few containers to handle it. Moreover, the logistics maintenance of regular suicide drones is extremely small.
Last point, when the MiG-23 weighing more than ten tons is used for suicide attacks, the penetration and survivability, attack accuracy, and strike power may not be higher than the "Geranium-2" drone with more than 100 kilograms.
The huge MiG aircraft is easily shot down by air defense missiles, while "Habbi" and "Geranium-2" are difficult to detect and shoot down by air defense system due to their small and slow characteristics. Moreover, regular suicide drones use more efficient warheads, and they are not comparable to MiG-23s with just a few bombs.
From this we can see that the mindset of the Russian media is purely absurd thoughts of laymen. In fact, the Soviet Union created similar weapons in the 1950s, that is, the first generation of cruise missile "Salmon", which was basically changed to a suicide drone, but the combat effectiveness was very poor. If the J-6 and MiG-23 can really be modified, then Russia will use the same navigation control technology to directly modify the old "Salmon" missile, which may be better for Russia. (Author: Tao Mujian)
