Last August 24thright on the occasion of Ukrainian Independence Day, took part in the conflict Palianitsia, the new weapon system halfway between a missile and a drone. Built entirely in the country, it appears to have been used to conduct a major attack on the city of Toropetsin the district of Tver, about 500 km from Moscow, hitting logistics depots of Russian war material and inflicting significant losses. Let’s try to understand how the Palianytsia system works and what characteristics it has.
Characteristics of Palianytsia, the new weapon of Ukraine
Palyanytsia is a system hybridwhose structural peculiarities place it halfway between a missile and a drone. Its main feature is that it can be used to carry out attacks quick And precise while keeping the production costs of the weapon system relatively low, if compared to normal cruise missiles. The latter, in fact, easily exceed millions of dollars in production costs, which, in a long and exhausting conflict such as the Russian-Ukrainian one, has a decidedly significant impact.
Since it is a hybrid system, it manages to combine the power Of fire and the speed of a missile with the maneuverability of a drone. Palianytsia, in fact, is powered by a jet engine capable of generating a thrust of 43 kg while his head at warthat is, the explosive part of the weapon, seems to be able to contain up to 20 kg of explosives. Furthermore, the explosive warhead is pre-fragmented, that is, divided into many small ones little squares as if it were “carved”: this is done to maximize the damage once the detonation has occurred. In this way, in fact, the “projectile” effect of the shrapnel is wider.
The body The weapon consists of a cylinder, equipped with wings fixed at the front and from surfaces dedicated to the check from the stabilization in the rear part, all to improve its stability in the trajectory and maximize its range. Its simple but at the same time effective structure, combined with a low weight, allows the missile-drone to be launched from the ground and to be able to count on a good flight capacity over long distances.
In themselves, these are not innovative technologies, “borrowed” a little from the world of drones, a little from that of missiles: what this represents an innovation in the creation of the Palianytsia weapon system is to have combined these technological solutions to create a new and effective weapon.
How the Palianytsia “missile-drone” works and how to pilot it
There is still not much reliable information about how the Palianytsia is piloted. From what we have been able to observe, it should be piloted like a “normal” drone: it is in fact a weapon remote controlled. Ground operators can manage the flight in real time, maneuvering until they direct the missile onto its target with relative ease. To date, it is not clear how this process of teleguidance of the Palianytsia occurs, but the most accredited hypotheses seem to indicate the exploitation of navigation radar or satellite.
There little availability of information, in this sense, is entirely plausible: we are in the field of secrets military which is normal not to disclose. The very development of this weapon system was kept secret by the Kiev government until August 24, when its use was announced by President Zelensky (and appeared on X). Subsequently, the same system was used in the attack that took place last September 18 in the Tver district, in Toropets, well beyond 500 km from the border between Russia and Ukraine.
Fun fact: the noun Palianytsia, chosen to give the name to the hybrid weapon system effectively used against the Russians, derives from a typical dish – a particular type of bread baked – from the Ukrainian culinary tradition. This word seems to be pronounced incorrectly by Russians: it is, after all, a sort of “identification code” language-based, to identify a native Ukrainian speaker.
Open source media – Palianytsia
