"Shrapnel hits up to 500 metres, flak jacket will not save you": risks faced during first launches of now famous Ukrainian Liutyi UAV

The first Liutyi (Fierce) Ukrainian long-range drone had issues with the front landing gear and compass calibration, requiring operators to accompany them by car during launch, putting their lives at serious risk.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda’s article "Sanctions from 1,000 kilometres away: the story of the Ukrainian drone Liutyi (Fierce) burning Russian oil refineries". (English translation coming soon).

Details: Ukrainska Pravda has reported on the first combat launch of the kamikaze drone in Chernihiv Oblast in September 2023, citing eyewitness stories.

The first aircraft had a minor problem with the front landing gear and compass calibration: the aircraft could slide off the runway at high speed during take-off and crash somewhere on the roadside.

"That's why the operator had to constantly steer those first aircraft to keep them on the runway. This means that you have to chase this 50-kilogram bomb from behind in a car at speeds of up to 150 km/h so that the operator can see it and align it with the runway. Obviously, no one wanted to launch it that way," one of the team members who conducted the first launches told Ukrainska Pravda.

There was no such problem during daylight hours because the aircraft is large, over 4 metres long and has a wingspan of almost 7 metres. It is clearly visible. Yet the 'chase' was inevitable at night. To see how it all worked at first, see the video of one of the early launches released by Ukrainska Pravda.

"The shrapnel damage of the Lutyi is guaranteed at a range of 400-500 metres. That's why we didn't even wear flak jackets, as they wouldn't have saved us," recalls a participant in the first launches.

For the sake of fairness, it should be said that one of the company's senior executives was always present at each launch during the "chases". Whenever the drone rolled off the runway and into the bushes, it was the developers who were the first to approach the vehicle and pull it back, the Ukrainska Pravda story says.

At the end of September 2023, the time came to launch Liutyi.

One of the road sections in Chernihiv Oblast, once used as an airfield, was chosen for the first launch.

The choice of location also had a security aspect: the team was sent closer to the border, as no one knew exactly how the drone would behave in the air. The aircraft was new and had 50 kilograms of warhead, so it was important that they at least made it across the border.

"At the time, no one understood how much these first prototypes could skid on the road; they would roll to the side of the road. Moreover, the roads are designed so that water flows off the road onto the side. That means there is a slight slope. And this slope is enough to make the navigation go a little crazy," recalls one of the participants of the first combat launch.

The first launch on Russia was delayed.

"One time, the takeoff was interrupted. We turned around and went to the starting point. The second start – the drone skids again. The takeoff is interrupted yet again. It's like being the first astronaut: it's hard not because it's impossible, but because there's no one to ask how to do it right.

But we were so eager to get there and hit the Moskals [the Russians] that we tried a third time: the aircraft took off and was flying. And then there was a strike, not merely somewhere, but on an oil depot near the airfield in Sochi [Russia]. And this was the only airfield that the Russians had on the Black Sea at the time. It was a triumph," recalls the launch participant.

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