A Ukrainian drone flew a strike mission against Russian targets late last month, and when it returned to base, operators found the aircraft had been impaled by a crude trident made of nails and thin steel rods, the commander told Business Insider.
Alex Eine, a unit commander in Ukraine’s embattled northeastern Kharkiv region, said that the trident was “definitely” launched from another drone as opposed to a soldier on the ground. The Ukrainian Backfire bomber was cruising above 800 meters (2,600 feet) when it was apparently struck from above in a blind spot without cameras.
The highly unusual incident appears to be the first reported case of a trident being used to try to intercept a drone. It is a rudimentary air defense approach in a war defined by both makeshift improvisations and technological innovation.
When the drone first returned, the Ukrainian soldiers thought it was part of an antenna, but a closer look at the projectile protruding from the fuselage of the fixed-wing heavy bomber revealed something far more improvised. The object was about 60 centimeters (roughly two feet) long.
Photos that the unit shared exclusively with Business Insider show the trident clearly.
Eine said that the unit is unsure exactly how or when the drone was struck during the mission. There are spots on a telemetry log that might mark the moment of impact, but wind gusts can have the same effect. It is ultimately inconclusive. Eine said they ruled out friendly fire as a possibility due to high levels of coordination.
The Backfire drone sustained some additional scratches, but overall, it managed to survive the shocking interception attempt. Eine credited its survival to the sturdiness of the airframe.
Other drones, he said, might be more susceptible to this kind of counter-drone weapon, as crude as it is. Eine said a projectile like the trident could be effective against heavy quadcopter drones. Anything that comes into contact with the propellers could completely disable it.
Eine said this is the first time he’s heard of a drone using a trident for air defense. Russia has outfitted some of its strike drones with air-to-air missiles, but Ukrainian officials have said that those are primarily used to combat helicopters and aircraft.
Neither Russia’s defense ministry nor its US embassy responded to a query about the tactic.
Drones have undergone other unprecedented modifications for air defense purposes as well. Ukraine, for instance, has armed its naval drones with surface-to-air missiles to shoot down Russian aircraft flying combat patrols above the Black Sea.
The trident strike underscores the demand for any kind of air defense available amid a high saturation of uncrewed aircraft that constantly buzz over the battlefield. Drones are responsible for the majority of battlefield kills at this point in the four-year-old conflict.
Ukraine, for its part, has invested heavily in the development of low-cost interceptor drones, which are armed with small warheads and fly directly into their targets or explode nearby to destroy them midair.
These interceptor drones emerged as a top defense priority last year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in January that local companies are producing around 1,000 a day, a goal he set over the summer.
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