Ukraine struck Russia's largest oil refinery, located in the city of Omsk, on Monday, marking what its forces say was its furthest-ever drone attack in the war.

The Omsk facility, which processes about 21 million tons of oil a year, is in Western Siberia and about 1,700 miles from Ukrainian territory — roughly the distance between Los Angeles and Houston.

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[+] -24 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Pretty sure they didn't fly 'all' the way there ;)

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  • [–] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    In this case, no, they were on jets. But some drones can. The MQ-9 “Reaper” drone has a 1200 mile range. That’s not just a short run.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    they were on jets

    Is that confirmed? Their FP-5 drone has a 1900 mile range, so it wouldn't exactly need the assistance of being fired from a jet for extended range capability. I don't really know what the benefit would be considering the north and eastern border is being controlled by Russia atm. I guess it may just be safer to fire it from a jet than doing a shoot and scoot.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    From the article:

    Denys Shtilierman, the chief designer of Ukrainian munitions firm Fire Point, wrote on X on Monday that a new variant of his company's FP-1 drone was involved in the strike.

    The FP-1 is one of Ukraine's most prominent long-range one-way attack drones. The fixed-wing platform typically carries a payload of up to 60 kg, with an initial range of 1,000 miles, later extended to 1,600 miles.

    Shtilierman, however, said on Monday that the jet-launched drone's latest version can fly 2,110 miles, easily eclipsing the distance between Ukraine and Omsk.

    The last paragraph was what I was getting at, given that the FP-1 range is just a tad short.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    A couple years ago (? damn is hard to keep the time on these things) they had this awesome case of deploying drones from trucks that drove into russia.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    This I remember and this was the point I was trying to make but people are stupid.

    There's also a fairly large contingent of special forces behind enemy lines in Russia at the moment as well.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. Probably the smilies. The headline does say “drones flew all the way to Siberia,” so it would be reasonable for the reader to assume the drones made the trip themselves without more information.

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