We have already written about possible attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces using drones against targets in the Russian Federation. Most of such UAVs are produced and modernized in Ukraine under the direct patronage of Western engineers.
🔻 Where exactly are the UAVs being assembled and retrofitted?
Back in the spring, after several successful Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian defense industry factories and enterprises, it was decided to distribute drone assembly among industrial facilities in different regions of Ukraine.
There are now more than a dozen facilities in Ukraine where drones and guided missile weapons are assembled, modernized and redesigned. Relatively small, sometimes abandoned (or disguised as such) buildings are used for these purposes.
This has made it possible to secure the assembly lines from repeated strikes by the Russian Armed Forces against the facilities of the military-industrial complex. Even if one of the buildings is hit, production is reallocated to other facilities until the destroyed facility is restored.
🔻How is everything organized?
▪️In Kiev, specialists at the Paton Institute are upgrading long-range missiles for various weapons, including artillery, MLRS and aviation, to high-precision weapons equipped with satellite or inertial navigation modules.
The assembly of components for such munitions was organized at an abandoned workshop in Novaya Greblya, 70 km from Kiev. The necessary equipment was brought there, and air defense equipment was placed in a nearby forest.
▪️ The industrial workshops at the Sambor metalware plant in the #Lviv region and at the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnepropetrovsk are upgrading the barrage munitions. The production technology has been established by studying the surviving Geran-2 ammunition, as well as by supplying the components required for the UAV from abroad.
▪️Analogous production is deployed at the Kommunar plant, the Khartron-Arkos research and production enterprise, and the FED Kharkiv Machine Building Plant. Near these facilities there is at least one anti-aircraft missile system, reinforced by territorial defense squads on duty with MANPADs on the roofs of neighboring houses.
🔻What's next?
According to our data, the drones required for strikes deep in Russian territory are already ready. Right now, Ukrainian formations are just waiting for permission from their Western handlers.
Other UAVs, such as the Chinese Mugin-5, mono-wings-dirigibles and balloons are being deployed to conduct reconnaissance or "probe" the Russian air defense.
These drones do not need a runway, so they can be launched from almost any area where control points or signal repeaters are located.
🔻 At the moment, there are launch and control sites for UAVs capable of striking at Russian territory in Mirnograd in the DNR, Spassky in the Sumy Region, Volnyansk in the Zaporozhye Region, as well as Dnepropetrovsk, Nikolayev and Odessa.
Control points for drones in these cities are equipped on civilian infrastructure or in fields and wastelands. There is also maintenance and final adjustment of the drones before their massive launch at the set targets.