Photo by United24
Article information
- Author, Oleg Chernysh
- Role, BBC Ukraine
- August 24, 2024
Updated: August 25, 2024
At the celebrations on the occasion of Independence Day, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the successful use of a new Ukrainian missile-drone called “Palyanytsia”. Previously, nothing was known about this development.
“The first and successful use of our new weapon took place. An absolutely new class of weapon – the Ukrainian missile-drone “Palyanytsia”, – said the president.
According to him, for Ukraine, this is “a new method of retribution to the aggressor.” The Russian facility, Zelenskyi stressed, was successfully hit.
“The enemy was hit. I thank everyone who ensured this. All the developers, manufacturers and our soldiers. I am proud of you. It will be very difficult for Russia, it will be difficult to even pronounce what exactly flew in. It is difficult to counteract, but it is very easy to understand why,” he said he.
Oleksandr Kamyshin, the Minister of Strategic Industry, revealed some details about Palyanitsa.
The author of the photo is the Ministry of Strategiprom
Caption: Minister Kamyshin said that the Palyanytsia missile hit an object in the occupied territory
First, he clarified that the enemy’s military object was hit on the occupied territory of Ukraine, and not on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Secondly, “Palyanytsia” has the tactical and technical characteristics (TSH) of both a missile and an unmanned aerial vehicle, and that is why “the product falls under both definitions.”
The Minister did not say what TTX are.
He emphasized that Ukraine now has drones for any task. For defeating the enemy in the air, on land and at sea, as well as at short, medium and long distances.
“We have mortar drones, artillery drones — and as of today, we have a completely new class of weapons, rocket drones,” Kamyshin noted. “The rocket drone is the next step in the evolution of Ukrainian defense tech (defense technologies – Ed.).”
What is Palyanytsia
The state project United24 released the image of the Palyanitsa drone in a video on August 25.
It is indicated that this drone was developed in a year and a half by Ukrainian specialists.
It is launched from a ground platform and has a range of up to 600-700 km, as it is indicated that there are about 20 Russian military airfields in the zone of its damage, in particular “Savasleyka” in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
What combat unit and guidance system the UAV has is classified.
However, it is indicated to have a turbojet engine.
Photo by United24
Photo Caption, Footage from United24 video
The footage shows that “Palyanytsia” is built according to the classical aerodynamic scheme. That is, the wings are located in the middle part of the rocket, and probably the moving rudders are in the tail part.
The warhead is located in the front of the drone-missile.
How exactly it is launched from a ground platform is not shown.
What is a rocket drone
For a long time, military analysts have paid attention to the fact that modern long-range strike drones approach cruise missiles in terms of their characteristics. A little more and the border between them will blur.
Once upon a time, these two separate weapons were to be combined. And it is symbolic that this probably happened for the first time in Ukraine, which in the conditions of a full-scale war against a much stronger aggressor is forced to look for non-standard moves.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine demonstrated the first hints of these “moves” back in December 2022. Then an unknown weapon hit the air base of the strategic aviation of the Russian Federation in the city of Engels, 600 km from the Ukrainian border.
Later it became known that Ukraine used old Soviet reconnaissance drones Tu-141 Strizh for the attack. These drones had jet engines and were capable of supersonic speeds. The Ukrainians modernized them by installing a powerful warhead instead of aerial photography equipment and a guidance system.
All this actually turned the drone into a cheap analog of a cruise missile.
This experiment with the Swifts was successful, and Ukraine, apparently, decided to follow this path in order to create its own powerful and accurate “hybrid” – a drone-missile.
Photo author, Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Caption to the photo, Soviet “Stryzh” jet drones, which the Armed Forces of Ukraine have already used for strikes on the Russian Federation
However, nothing was known about the product called “Palyanytsia” until today.
Footage and information about the development of attack jet UAVs under other names got into the media.
So, in January of this year, the media reported on the testing of a new unmanned aerial vehicle on a jet engine with reference to a volunteer from Khmelnytskyi Maksym Hlushak. The volunteer also posted a photo of this development, but this Facebook post is currently unavailable.
The profile publication “Military” indicates that this drone is designed according to the “Duck” aerodynamic scheme, with a front horizontal wing.
In the aft part there is a power plant of an unknown type, which is a jet engine. However, experts noted that it is probably not a rocket engine.
Another long-range strike drone called Morok became known at the end of last year. However, in the first modifications, it probably had an internal combustion engine.
Visually, this UAV is similar to a small cruise missile, but with larger wings and a tail.
According to the published characteristics, this drone has a flight range of 800 km and a warhead of up to 30 kg.
As for “classical” missile weapons, Ukraine publicly recognized only the creation and combat use of subsonic anti-ship missiles “Neptune”, as well as the development of their modification for strikes on land targets.
