The UJ-26 Bober () is a type of Ukrainian long-range

loitering munition A loitering munition, also known as a suicide drone, kamikaze drone, or exploding drone, is a weapon with a warhead that is typically designed to Loiter (aeronautics), loiter until a target is designated, then crash into it.Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

account Lachen Pyshe announced a public fundraising campaign called Hovor Khell, for a domestic

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

for Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR). On 11 May 2023 it published photographs and said that it had already been used to accrue losses by Russian forces during the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

. On 30 May, it was used to conduct a series of drone strikes in suburban Moscow. The drone reportedly has a range of 600 to 1,000 km, and its warhead is a KZ-6 shaped charge. This drone has been used during a number of attacks on Moscow. During July and August 2023 a number of drones struck the

IQ-quarter The IQ-quarter () is a mixed-use complex composed of two skyscrapers and a high-rise located on plot 11 in the Moscow International Business Center (MIBC) in Moscow, Russia with a total area of . The skyscrapers are named Towers 1 and 2, with th ...

high-rise buildings in Moscow two days in a row. Other attacks occurred in July and May, possibly including the Kremlin drone attack. Other drones have also been identified as being involved. However images appeared on social media in late July matching footage taken from other videos online. The Bober drone appear to have a rear-mounted

pusher propeller In aeronautical and naval engineering, pusher configuration is the term used to describe a drivetrain of air- or watercraft with propulsion device(s) after the engine(s). This is in contrast to the more conventional tractor configuration, whic ...

and potentially has a sensor package in the nose. The drone was commissioned at the request of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency the

HUR Hur or HUR may refer to: People * Hur (Korean name), also spelled Heo * Hur (Bible), a number of biblical figures * Hur-ul-Nisa Begum, first of the fourteen children of Mumtaz Mahal Places * Hur, Iran (disambiguation), a number of places * ...

, who asked Ihor Lachenkov, in December 2022, for a "drone that can fly very far". His fundraising put some 20 million

hryvnia The ( ; , ''hrn''; sign: ₴; code: UAH) has been the national currency of Ukraine since 2 September 1996. The hryvnia is divided into 100 kopiykas (). It is named after a measure of weight used in Kievan Rus'. Etymology The currency of Kie ...

(half a million

dollars Dollar is the name of more than 25 currencies. The United States dollar, named after the international currency known as the Spanish dollar, was established in 1792 and is the first so named that still survives. Others include the Australian d ...

) towards its development. Images were released publicly in July and these images match footage taken by Russians over Ilyinsky, Moscow Oblast, on 30 May 2023. These drones may be vulnerable to Russian electronic warfare which is often cited as having "suppressed" such drones. However, even if true, the drone will still crash into something with an explosive payload. The emphasis on the use of drones like the Bober go to a comment from the Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelenskyy Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...

, who said on 30 July 2023 that "gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia – to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process". Russian milbloggers have also been critical of the lack of protection against such attacks. On 9 July 2024, Ukrainian Bober drones struck a Russian missile testing facility at

Kapustin Yar Kapustin Yar () is a Russian military training area and a rocket launch complex in Astrakhan Oblast, about 100 km east of Volgograd. It was established by the Soviet Union on 13 May 1946. In the beginning, Kapustin Yar used technology, material ...

. Russian officials claimed more than 20 drones were shot down, while one black painted Bober drone crashed landed in a field. Subsequent satellite images showed scorch marks at the facility.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{Cite web , date=2023-05-31 , title=Moscow Attack: new details revealed on UAVs used in incident , url=https://mil.in.ua/en/news/moscow-attack-new-details-revealed-on-uavs-used-in-incident/ , access-date=2023-07-30 , website=Militarnyi , language=en-US Loitering munitions Military equipment of the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2020s Ukrainian military aircraft Unmanned military aircraft of Ukraine