Ukraine Just Revealed a Secret Bomber Drone Squadron Russia Never Saw Coming

Ukraine has publicly revealed what appears to be a squadron of domestically developed reusable bomber drones after they were reportedly used in a coordinated strike against a Russian underground logistics hub near Armyansk in temporarily occupied Crimea.

Photos published on July 13 by Serhii Sternenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Defense Minister, show at least ten modified light aircraft equipped with Soviet-designed OFAB-100-120 aerial bombs.

According to Sternenko, the aircraft were used overnight to attack an underground Russian logistics facility near the Perekop Isthmus, one of Moscow’s key supply routes connecting occupied Crimea with Russian-controlled territory.

“The photo deserves to be called historic,” Sternenko wrote alongside the images. According to Defense Express, the aircraft are based on the civilian SkyRanger platform, converted into remotely piloted reusable bomber drones known in Ukraine as Horynych.

The publication reported that the strike was carried out by Ukraine’s Air Force together with the Lazar Group of the National Guard and the Venom 34th Unmanned Systems Center of the State Service of Special Communications.

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As noted by Defense Express, each aircraft visible in the photographs appears to carry a single OFAB-100-120 bomb weighing approximately 100 kilograms. Unlike one-way long-range attack drones, the SkyRanger-based platforms are designed to return after completing bombing missions, allowing them to be reused multiple times.

The modified aircraft are built on SkyRanger Swift and Nynja ultralight airframes originally intended for civilian recreational aviation. The cockpit controls are replaced with remote-control systems and electro-optical cameras, enabling operators to fly them from the ground while carrying full-sized aerial bombs beneath the fuselage.

The publication noted that Ukraine has employed converted SkyRanger aircraft since at least 2024, but previously only isolated examples had been documented.

Earlier sightings typically showed individual aircraft operating independently after crashes or during single strike missions. The appearance of at least ten aircraft together suggests the program has expanded from limited experimental use into a larger operational capability.

Defense Express also pointed to details in the published photographs indicating that the image itself was likely taken months earlier, based on leafless trees and seasonal vegetation. If accurate, this would suggest that Ukraine has maintained a sizable fleet of these reusable bomber drones for some time before publicly revealing their existence.

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Armyansk lies near the Perekop Isthmus, the main land corridor connecting occupied Crimea with Russian-controlled territory.

According to The Defense Express, underground logistics facilities in the area serve as hardened storage and distribution sites for fuel, ammunition, and military equipment, making them strategically important targets for Ukrainian deep-strike operations.

Neither Ukraine’s military nor the Ministry of Defense has officially confirmed the number of aircraft involved, the exact target, or the extent of damage caused during the reported strike. Independent assessments of the attack have also not yet been published.

Ukraine has previously used converted civilian light aircraft in long-range strike missions. In June 2025, Ukrainian forces reportedly employed a modified A-22 Foxbat to tow an unpowered glider carrying a 100-kilogram warhead during a strike on Russia’s Shahed drone production facility in Alabuga, marking the first known use of such a tandem drone configuration in combat.

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