The war in Ukraine has been a laboratory of unprecedented military innovation for years, and once again kyiv has just surprised the entire world. This time not with a cutting-edge missile or with technology imported from the West, but with something much more unexpected: an old Soviet transport plane converted into a drone launch platform. Yes, as you read it.
The protagonist of this story is Antonov An-28a twin-engine light transport inherited from the Soviet generation that, in principle, was never designed for combat. However, in Ukrainian hands, this device has just taken a qualitative leap that is attracting the attention of military analysts around the world.
The An-28 already hunted drones with a machine gun, but Ukraine wanted to go further
Before reaching the mothership phase, the An-28 already had an impressive track record on the front lines. Ukrainian forces had set up a M134 Minigun rotary machine gun in the side door of the planemaking it a kind of light gunship capable of shooting down enemy drones at close range. With that method, the crews reported more than 70 initial kills and, according to more recent data, the figure climbed to 222 Russian drones neutralized using cannon weaponry.
But that was not enough for the Ukrainian engineers and military. The logic of war pushed them to ask themselves: what if instead of firing directly, the plane could launch its own interceptor drones from the air? The answer to that question changed everything.
The plane that “shoots drones” in mid-flight
What Ukraine has achieved with the An-28 is, technically, something that does not have many precedents in staunch combat. The aircraft was equipped with external hardpoints under its wings.capable of carrying up to six interceptor drones per mission. On board, an optical system allows the crew to detect targets visually before proceeding to launch.
The drones launched from these platforms include models such as the P1-Sundeveloped by the Ukrainian company Skyfall, and the AS-3 Surveyorfrom the American Merops system. Once deployed, these interceptors pursue and destroy enemy drones—mainly the Iranian Shaheds used by Russia—in an autonomous or guided manner. The Ukrainian pilot Tymur Fatkullin described it with a phrase that sums it all up: “It’s basically a cheap air-to-air missile.”.
The tactical advantage of this method is enormous. By launching the interceptors from height and with the added speed of the plane, Reaction time is reduced and effective range is increased of each drone. In addition, the An-28 can operate from improvised runways thanks to its short take-off and landing (STOL) capability, making it extremely flexible to deploy to different points on the front without depending on conventional airport infrastructure.
The organization Wild Hornets —one of Ukraine’s most active drone development groups—also confirmed that its own Sting interceptor was launched from an An-28 during a staunch combat mission. This shows that the concept is not exclusive to a single manufacturer, but is becoming a open platform for multiple systems of interception.
Economy as a strategic advantage: cheaper does not mean less lethal
One of the most fascinating elements of all this innovation is the economic logic behind it. Russia produces thousands of Shahed drones per month at a relatively low cost, but still higher than the locally manufactured Ukrainian interceptors. Ukraine has understood that modern war is not always won by the one who spends the most, but by the one who spends the best.
Converting a Soviet aircraft—which might otherwise be rusting in a hangar—into a functional anti-drone combat platform has twofold strategic value: lower costs and reuse existing assets without having to wait for supplies from abroad. In 2025, Ukraine manufactured more than three million drones throughout the year, almost triple that in 2024, as confirmed by Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal himself. This productive capacity, combined with air launch platforms such as the An-28, exponentially multiplies the available defense power.
Colonel Vadym Sukharevsky, commander of the Ukrainian Unmanned Aircraft Force, sums it up with a phrase that has become doctrine: “robots first”. And what is happening with the An-28 is, precisely, the materialization of that philosophy: putting unmanned technology at the center of every tactical decision.
What Ukraine is building with the An-28 is not just a makeshift emergency solution. Is the embryo of a new distributed air combat doctrinewhere multiple layers of defense—aircraft, interceptor drones, ground systems—work in a coordinated manner. In a world where drones are becoming faster, cheaper and harder to shoot down, the ability to airdrop them represents an advantage that other militaries around the world are already looking closely at.
Keep reading:
• With the incursion of its drones in Poland “Russia is testing the determination of NATO and the West”
• How drone manufacturing made Iran a key player in the global military industry
• Ukraine’s bold drone attack sends critical message to Russia and the West
