Ukraine Is Using A Soviet-Era Prop Plane To Hunt Down Russian Drones

The war betwen Russia and Ukraine has been raging since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, and both nations have reached deep into their respective bags of tactical tricks. Some of Ukraine's choices might seem a bit off-beat at first, but many have proven to be effective against a more powerful foe. Ukraine's Khartiia Brigade used remote control kamikaze cars in ambushes on Russian ground troops, and Ukranian drone boats have fired missiles at enemy planes. Russia has relied heavily on drone patrols and attacks, and Ukraine reached back in time to find a way to repel them.

The Ukraine military effort is supported by the nation's Civil Air Patrol, a loosely arranged network of private pilots. Many of them fly a Soviet-era Yakolev Yak-52, one of the classic warplanes you can actually buy. In August of 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that a 56-year old Yak-52 pilot going by the call sign Maestro was hunting Russian drones alongside his 38-year old gunner 'Ninja.' Since their plane lacks mounted guns or air-to-air missile capabilities, Ninja shoots them out of the sky with a German-made Haenel automatic rifle. The most surprising thing about their success is that Ninja — an auto mechanic by trade — had never been in an airplane before Russia's invasion of his homeland.

The Civil Air Patrol allows extraordinary citizens to help their nation fight a larger enemy by supplementing the military's resources and personnel. Privately owned military planes are  known as "Warbirds," and the Yak-52 makes a decent drone hunter despite some limitations. A Yak-52 can be in the air within 15 minutes of threat detection, and  radar operators on the ground guide pilots to target drones over the radio. The Yak-52 isn't the fastest plane in the air with a maximum speed of 180 mph, but the Russian Zala and Orlan drones it's hunting top out at around 115. When a Yak-52 gets to within 200 to 300 feet of a target drone, the gunner uses a rifle or shotgun to knock it out of the sky; it's an inexpensive tactic that has yielded results. In 2024, Maestro and Ninja flew around 300 missions and took down 120 drones, putting a dent in Russia's surveillance and attack capabilities. When a Yak-52's gunner can't get a good shot, pilots sometimes knock a target drone out of control by whacking it with a wingtip. 

The ongoing war has prompted a game of tactical leapfrog. Russia began adding rear-facing cameras to its drones to help remote pilots spot Ukranian Yak-52s and is using a modernized version of the Yak-52 to combat long-range enemy drones. Instead of tracking enemy drones via ground radar and shooting them down with handheld long guns, Russia's Yak-52s have a semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun under one wing and an electronic tracking system beneath the other. The modernized Yak-52B2 also features present-day radar and day/night surveillance systems, making it technologically superior to Ukraine's older Civil Air Patrol Yak-52s. 

Russia's tech advantage here is somewhat mitigated by the fact that it has much more territory to protect. Both sides continue to develop and implement new concepts with regards to drones, including Russia's use of Iranian-made Shahed drone bodies along with ones made domestically. Russia's heavy reliance on long-range drone strikes and Ukraine's creative approach to defending against them surely means more adaptations will come from both sides as the war continues.