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| Specifications for the Soviet Union's Tupolev Tu-141, Unmanned Reconnaissance Aircraft Converted into Kamikaze Drones |
International Military - Tu-141 Strizh is a tactical unmanned reconnaissance aircraft made by Tupolev in the Soviet Union era in 1960 and first flew in 1974. After the Russian-Ukrainian war broke out, the Tu-141 Strizh role was changed to a kamikaze bomber drone.
Ukraine used Tu-141 Strizh as kamikaze drones to attack Russian bases Diaghilev on December 5, 2022, Engles-2 Base (December 5, 2022), and Halino Base (December 6, 2022). Russia also reported shooting down Tu-141 Strizh near Kursk (5 December 2022) and Belbek (6 December 2022).
At the start of the Russian invasion, quoted from the Bulgarian Military, around March, three Tu-141 Strizh variant drones were shot down near Kursk, one near Rostov, and one near Bryansk. Several Tu-141 Strizh drones were also reported to have strayed into the airspace of Romania, Hungary and Croatia (10 March 2022).
The Tupolev Tu-141 was originally designed as an unmanned aerial vehicle or subsonic medium-range reconnaissance UAV. The Tu-141 body is relatively large, 14.33 meters long and 2.4 meters high, using a KR-17A turbojet engine with 19.6 kN thrust.
The Tu-141 Strizh can carry a variety of payloads, including film cameras, infrared cameras and imaging radar. The Tu-141 Strizh is launched from a trailer truck using a booster rocket or a powerful starting solid fuel accelerator under the tail section of the fuselage.
The Tu-141 Strizh is designed to penetrate deep into enemy airspace, carry out reconnaissance activities and return to base. The Tu-141 Strizh lands in a unique way, reducing airspeed and deploying the parachute, otherwise known as the brake system and landing parachute.
The Tu-141, similar to other dartlike engines, had rear-mounted delta wings, forward canards, and collapsible wingtips. The Tu-141 Strizh aircraft is controlled using two elevons on the wings and rudder.
The fuselage is round with a diameter of 950 mm in the cylindrical section, passing through the engine mounting area into an oval shape. The subsonic air intake, mounted above the fuselage, allows for a range of about 1,000 km or 620 miles.
The use of the Tu-141 Strizh in the Russian-Ukrainian war changed, its role was not as an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. Ukrainian troops turned their Tu-141 Strizh into kamikaze drones equipped with high-explosive bombs.
Prior to the attack on the Russian base, Kiev had announced it was preparing a new kamikaze drone with a 165-pound warhead payload. The Tu-141 was modified from a reconnaissance drone to a kamikaze fighter drone as it carried the OFAB-100-120 bomb which was about 220 pounds heavier.
Ukraine replaced the gyroscope-based inertial navigation system on the Tu-141 Strizh by integrating satellite navigation with GPS assistance. With one of two available navigation systems, Ukraine can easily coordinate Tu-141 Strizh attacks against Russian military bases.
The speed of the Tu-141 has also been increased to a small transonic or supersonic around 1,200-1,300 km / h, which is capable of breaking through the enemy's air defense system. There is no exact data on how many Tu-141 Strizh drones Ukraine has, but Tupolev in the period 1979 to 1989 before the dissolution of the Soviet Union was recorded as producing 152 units.