Weaponized Chinese Drone Shot Down in Eastern Ukraine
As we drove deeper into the forest, distant explosions from the battles for eastern Ukraine’s frontlines shattered the silence between the towering pine trees and the clear blue skies.
The Ukrainian soldiers led us on foot through the forest to a clearing where they displayed the wreckage of a weaponized drone they claimed to have shot down with their AK-47 automatic weapons over the weekend.
The drone was a Mugin-5, a commercial unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) produced by a Chinese manufacturer based in the eastern Chinese port city of Xiamen.
Some tech bloggers refer to the machines as “Alibaba drones” because they have been available for purchase on Chinese marketplace websites including Alibaba and Taobao for up to $15,000.
Weaponized Chinese Drone Shot Down in Eastern Ukraine. Mugin Limited confirmed to CNN that the aircraft was theirs, calling the incident “extremely regrettable.”
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this is the most recent instance of a civilian drone being retrofitted and armed, a sign of the rapidly shifting patterns of warfare.
Maksim, a 35-year-old territorial defense soldier who wished to be identified only by his first name, stated, “Along the frontlines, we conduct aerial reconnaissance nearly nonstop.”
Low elevation
Overnight on Friday into Saturday, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) informed CNN that their agents stationed in Russian-controlled territory had informed them that a UAV had been launched from there and was headed towards a Ukrainian target.
The SBU then notified military units stationed in eastern Ukraine, close to the city of Sloviansk.
Saturday morning at approximately 2:00 a.m., fighters from the 111th Brigade of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces heard a drone overhead and observed a blinking light on the aircraft.
“Based on the sound and the signal light, the troops fired heavily and destroyed the UAV,” Maksim explained.
Maksim stated that the UAV was flying at a very low altitude, close enough for hand-held weapons to bring it down.
On the nose of the machine, which was now shattered and lying on the forest floor, was a bullet hole that had caused significant damage.
The soldiers also showed us a small crater in the ground created by the UAV’s payload, a bomb weighing approximately 44 pounds (20 kilograms) that was later detonated safely by the fighters.
In a video shared with CNN, Ukrainian fighters can be seen attaching a US-made explosive device to their vehicle, before sprinting through the forest and accelerating away.
At a distance of approximately 500 meters, they stopped their vehicle and turned to film the powerful impact of the explosion, a reminder of the potential damage it could have caused if it had reached its intended target on Ukrainian territory.
“Barbaric and unsophisticated”
According to Chris Lincoln-Jones, a retired British Army officer and expert in drone warfare, the lack of a camera on the weaponized commercial drone prevented it from being used for surveillance and made it essentially comparable to a “dumb bomb.”
Lincoln-Jones stated, “This particular drone we’ve been considering would be much more effective if it contained a decent camera.”
He added that the machine bolsters the argument that Russia is not the military superpower the world might have anticipated.
“This appears to be a very primitive, unsophisticated, and not very technologically advanced method of conducting operations,” he said, adding that the cost of the machines is extremely low in military terms.
“The Ukrainians must do whatever they can,” he added, so he anticipates that they will employ “much more improvised weapons.”
In January, officials in the Russian-held eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk claimed in a Telegram message that they had shot down a Ukrainian Mugin-5.
There is evidence that both sides of the conflict have utilized this technology, according to experts. Ukrainian officials did not comment on this particular incident.
N. R. Jenzen-Jones, an arms and munitions intelligence specialist and director of the consulting firm Armament Research Services, stated: “Both Russia and Ukraine have utilized commercially available Chinese platforms such as this during the conflict, including in armed roles.”
“In this instance, the Mugin-5 Pro was likely used as a bomber and not as a one-way attack (OWA, also known as “sacrificial”) UAV,” Jenzen-Jones explained.
He stated that the drone’s payload was likely a “high explosive fragmentation” design that was “simple and not very aerodynamic.”
Jenzen-Jones added that the bomb’s release mechanism appeared to be made with 3D-printed components, which “suggests that the UAV was retrofitted rapidly,” he said.
We are not pleased with it.
As weaponry evolves in real-time on the battlefields of Ukraine, the civilian companies whose technology is being weaponized are scrambling to find ways to prevent their products from entering the military supply chain.
“We do not approve of the use. CNN was informed by a representative of Mugin Limited that “we are doing our best to stop it.”
In a previous statement posted to their website on March 2, Mugin Limited stated that they “condemn” the use of their products in warfare and that they ceased selling their products to Russia or Ukraine at the beginning of the conflict.
CNN also reached out to six other companies whose electronic components were visible on the downed UAV.
This includes MKS servos, a Taiwanese electronic device manufacturer.
CNN received an email from a company spokesperson stating, “Some UAV manufacturers may adopt MKS servos on their finished products for military use. We are not happy about this, as it goes against our company’s mission and vision.”
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Additionally, the MKS website disclaimer states that their products are “prohibited” for any illegal or military use.
A sensor on the UAV’s retrofitted circuit board was manufactured by Novatel, a division of the Canadian-based Hexagon group, which supplies the “agriculture, construction, and automotive” industries.
“We have extensive control processes in place for all export-controlled products to ensure compliance with applicable export laws,” a Hexagon representative told CNN via email.
In April 2022, we also decided to cease all business operations in Russia.
Despite indications that the use of UAV technology in this conflict is intensifying, Maksim, a Ukrainian fighter, denies that this is now a drone war.
He stated, “This is not a war of technology.” “The war is primarily a war of individuals.”
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