This November, Latvia held a parade as part of independence day celebrations. Among the military equipment displayed at the event, particularly notable were Antonov An-2 biplane utility aircraft. They were noticed by Spanish-speaking media outlet Defensa, pointing out the fact Latvia remains the last of NATO member states to have these old Soviet "flying dinosaurs" in military service.
Unrelated to these festivities, an interesting incident occurred in russia just a week later: over the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil refinery, an "unknown unmanned aerial vehicle" was flying. The russian air defense units opened fire and eventually found out that it was their own civilian An-2. Apparently, the crew accidentally flew too close to the refinery but managed to avoid getting shot down. Later, russian media showed the unfortunate An-2 which had been hit by machine gun fire and with high probability, larger anti-aircraft guns, revealing an impressive level of An-2's survivability.
Read more: Survivability of the An-2 in Practice: russians Mistake Civilian Aircraft for Ukrainian Drone Over Oil Refinery (Video)
This episode hinted at another interesting tool that could be used for long-range strikes on russia, considering this durability and potential to mislead russians: An-2 could be converted into autonomous aerial drones filled with explosives and equipped with simple navigation and flight control systems. The availability of a few aircraft of this type in operating condition opens an opportunity to make it work.
Here Defense Express notes that Latvia actually might be not the only one having An-2 in its inventory. According to The Military Balance directory, as of 2024, NATO members North Macedonia and Bulgaria still have one An-2 each.
As for Latvia, the armed forces of this country have four An-2s in service, three of them were modernized, and the other one was in poor condition, so it was mothballed until restoration, which was delayed.
The Lithuanian military received its third modernized An-2 in 2021. The upgrade included a major overhaul of the engine, integration of an improved control panel, a new navigation system, new seats, etc. Also, the aircraft with tail number 030 was also painted in pixel camouflage.
At the time, one Latvian officer spoke quite favorably about this aircraft, noting its effectiveness in the training of paratroopers, and in missions carried out by special operations forces or the border guard who found the biplane's surveillance systems useful for detecting illegal border crossings. Considering this feedback, we can assume that the Latvian Air Force does not plan to scrap its An-2s any soon yet.
Read more: Ideas for Using An-2 Aircraft as Kamikaze Drones in Strikes Emerge in Ukraine Following Friendly Fire Incidents in russia
