On the night of November 26, 2024, russian air defense crews spotted an unidentified aerial vehicle over the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil refinery, located 1,400 kilometers from Ukraine's border, and opened fire, attempting to destroy it.
The russian forces believed they were targeting a kamikaze drone, but it turned out to be a civilian An-2 aircraft. The crew was apparently unaware that flights over the refinery were prohibited. The aircraft was on the Ufa-Salavat-Ufa route and, despite sustaining damage, managed to land at the airport in Ufa.
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Previously, there had been reports of a similar incident of friendly fire in September this year, when russian air defense mistook a civilian light aircraft heading toward Murmansk for a drone.
Based on these two incidents, we might infer that the system for sharing air traffic data to counter kamikaze drone attacks is still not fully established in russia, despite prolonged long-range strikes by Ukraine's Defense Forces on enemy infrastructure.
Against this backdrop, the idea of using kamikaze drones based on the An-2 for new strikes on russian territory seems plausible, similar to how Azerbaijan used them during the Karabakh war in 2020.
Undoubtedly, Azerbaijan used its An-2-based drones primarily as bait to detect and overwhelm Armenian air defenses. In Ukraine's case, it also seems reasonable to use An-2-based drones to overwhelm the russian air defense system.
However, the characteristics of the An-2 raise questions about using such aircraft for direct strikes on russian military targets near the border. For context, An-2 planes can carry a payload of up to 1,200 kilograms, have a practical flight range of up to 900 kilometers, a fuselage length of 12 meters, and a wingspan of 18 meters for the upper wing and 14 meters for the lower wing.
Before the full-scale invasion, a number of An-2 aircraft were available to agricultural aviation operators.
Currently, civilian flights are prohibited due to the threat from russian forces. Agricultural drones are gradually replacing these crop dusters, suggesting a potential direction for utilizing the existing An-2 aircraft.
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