Os F-16 da Ucrânia estão fazendo Putin passar VERGONHA — Transcript

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1. 0:03Pay attention to what is about to happen
2. 0:05.
3. 0:14What you just saw is a jet-powered
4. 0:17Shahed arriving.
5. 0:25No, this is not that slow drone Ukraine
6. 0:27was already used to shooting down with
7. 0:29machine guns on pickup trucks.
8. 0:42This one flies higher, at more than
9. 0:44twice the speed.
10. 0:47And worst of all, nearly half of them
11. 0:49get through.
12. 0:54The only ones that can still catch them
13. 0:56are fighters like the F-16.
14. 1:22To take one of these down with a cannon
15. 1:24, the pilot must get within a few
16. 1:27hundred meters of a jet-powered flying
17. 1:29bomb and fly through the debris.
18. 1:34The other option is a fighter missile
19. 1:36costing over 1 million dollars.
20. 1:52It isn't worth it.
21. 1:54That is precisely where Ukraine found a
22. 1:56solution few people expected.
23. 1:59A solution that completely turns the
24. 2:01tables on Russia.
25. 2:05To understand what Ukraine did, I need
26. 2:07to show you one thing first.
27. 2:10Throughout almost this entire war,
28. 2:12Russia's main long-range weapon was the
29. 2:15Shahed, that Iranian propeller-driven
30. 2:18drone.
31. 2:21Although it is of Iranian origin, Russia
32. 2:23manufactures its own version and calls
33. 2:25it by another name: Geran.
34. 2:29But deep down, it is the same drone.
35. 2:32It flies at about 185 km/h.
36. 2:36Because it is slow and flies low,
37. 2:38Ukraine learned to shoot it down cheaply
38. 2:41.
39. 2:42To do this, they use machine guns
40. 2:44mounted on pickups, anti-aircraft guns,
41. 2:46and, mainly, thousands of small hunter
42. 2:49drones.
43. 2:51In March of this year alone, more than
44. 2:53nine out of every 10 Shaheds were shot
45. 2:56down.
46. 2:58And that is when Russia changed the
47. 3:00drone.
48. 3:02First, they put a small jet engine into
49. 3:04the same frame.
50. 3:06Then, they redesigned the entire body
51. 3:08and created the Geran 4.
52. 3:11The newest model, the Geran 5, entered
53. 3:14service in August and could reach about
54. 3:17600 km/h.
55. 3:20And there is a detail that matters as
56. 3:23much as the speed: these jet drones can
57. 3:25fly between 5 and 9 km high.
58. 3:29That is nearly the height of Mount
59. 3:31Everest.
60. 3:34That is where the cheap defense Ukraine
61. 3:36uses stops working; neither the machine
62. 3:38gun on a pickup nor the propeller hunter
63. 3:41drone can get there in time.
64. 3:44The result of this appeared quickly.
65. 3:47By the end of September, Ukraine was
66. 3:49shooting down only a little over half of
67. 3:51these jet drones.
68. 3:53On the night of September 29th alone,
69. 3:55according to President Zelensky, 29 jet
70. 3:58drones joined the attack.
71. 4:0018 were downed.
72. 4:0211 continued toward the cities. To catch
73. 4:05the drones that get past the cheap
74. 4:07defense, only the expensive defense
75. 4:09remains: the fighter jet.
76. 4:12The F-16 is able to reach these drones.
77. 4:16The problem is what to shoot them down
78. 4:18with.
79. 4:20Because a modern U.S.-made fighter
80. 4:23missile costs nearly 1.5 million dollars
81. 4:27, while the drone it takes down costs
82. 4:30Russia about 200,000.
83. 4:35In practice, to bring down one drone,
84. 4:38Ukraine spends a missile worth at least
85. 4:41five times more, and the math gets even
86. 4:44worse on a night like September 29th.
87. 4:48There are 29 jet-powered drones in the
88. 4:50sky.
89. 4:52Armed only with missiles, each F-16 goes
90. 4:54up with about six shots.
91. 4:57Fighter missiles are not just expensive
92. 4:59; they are also scarce.
93. 5:01Late last year, Ukrainian F-16s went
94. 5:05three weeks without U.S.-made missiles,
95. 5:09and Russia knows it.
96. 5:12That is the Russian trick.
97. 5:15The attacks usually begin with drones.
98. 5:18From the first drone, the pilot has only
99. 5:20a few hours until the Russian cruise
100. 5:21missiles arrive.
101. 5:23Every missile spent now will be missed
102. 5:27later.
103. 5:29For Russia, the drone fulfills part of
104. 5:32its mission just by forcing the fighter
105. 5:34to fire.
106. 5:37To save missiles, the pilot has one last
107. 5:41resort, considered the worst one: the
108. 5:44cannon.
109. 5:49To use it, the pilot must get within a
110. 5:51few hundred meters behind a flying bomb
111. 5:54, fire, and then fly through what
112. 5:56remains of it.
113. 6:00In a single-engine fighter, a piece of
114. 6:02that debris could be the end of the
115. 6:04plane.
116. 6:06And this job has already taken its toll
117. 6:07.
118. 6:09In June last year, on a night when
119. 6:12Russia launched over 500 drones and
120. 6:15missiles at Ukraine, 32-year-old
121. 6:17Lieutenant Colonel Maksim Ustimenko used
122. 6:21all of his F-16's ammunition and downed
123. 6:24seven targets.
124. 6:26On the last one, the plane sustained
125. 6:28damage and began losing altitude.
126. 6:31He still managed to steer the fighter
127. 6:33away from a residential area.
128. 6:35There wasn't enough time to eject. To
129. 6:37this day, it hasn't been disclosed what
130. 6:39damaged the plane.
131. 6:43When you put the pieces together,
132. 6:45Russia’s strategy becomes very clear.
133. 6:49They want to make a drone too fast and
134. 6:51too high for cheap defenses, forcing
135. 6:53Ukraine to spend its most expensive and
136. 6:56scarce resources to stop it.
137. 6:59The fighter missiles.
138. 7:02And the obvious answer to that would be
139. 7:04a more modern missile.
140. 7:07But Ukraine is known for being
141. 7:09innovative and went in the opposite
142. 7:11direction.
143. 7:13Under the wing of the F-16, they started
144. 7:16carrying an older, much cheaper weapon.
145. 7:21It is a 70 mm rocket, one of the most
146. 7:24common aerial weapons in the West.
147. 7:28Inside, it is simple: a tube with a
148. 7:30rocket motor at the back and an
149. 7:32explosive charge at the front.
150. 7:36This rocket family was born in the late
151. 7:391940s in the United States to fire at
152. 7:43bombers.
153. 7:45Then it spent over half a century being
154. 7:48fired from helicopters at ground targets
155. 7:51.
156. 7:52It was cheap and existed in droves, but
157. 7:55had a flaw: it missed a lot.
158. 7:58So, how does a rocket that missed so
159. 8:00much start hitting a drone in the sky?
160. 8:05The answer is what you are seeing right
161. 8:06there.
162. 8:07A guidance kit. The kit is a short part
163. 8:10that screws in between the existing
164. 8:13motor and the explosive warhead.
165. 8:16Inside it are small fins with sensors
166. 8:18that track lasers.
167. 8:21It works like this.
168. 8:23The pilot points a laser at the target
169. 8:26and the rocket follows the light spot to
170. 8:29the end.
171. 8:31In tests, it hits on average within less
172. 8:34than 1 meter of the marked point.
173. 8:37This type of precision usually costs a
174. 8:39lot, but not in this case.
175. 8:42For the American forces, each rocket
176. 8:44with the kit cost around $ 25,000.
177. 8:47That is the price of a car versus over $
178. 8:491 million.
179. 8:51But there is still another problem:
180. 8:54hitting a stationary point is one thing
181. 8:56, hitting a small drone in flight is
182. 8:59another.
183. 9:02Then came the second solution: the
184. 9:05proximity fuze.
185. 9:07It senses when the rocket passes near
186. 9:09the target and detonates the warhead at
187. 9:10the right moment.
188. 9:13The rocket doesn't even need to hit the
189. 9:14drone; it just needs to pass close by.
190. 9:16A near miss turns into a confirmed kill
191. 9:19.
192. 9:20The proof that it works came from those
193. 9:22who had every option available.
194. 9:26In the Middle East, the U.S. Air Force,
195. 9:28owner of the world's most advanced
196. 9:31missiles, chose this cheap rocket as its
197. 9:33main weapon against drones.
198. 9:37And the same rocket has reached Ukraine
199. 9:39.
200. 9:40At the start of this year, the
201. 9:42Ukrainians released footage from an F-
202. 9:4416's targeting camera marking a Shahed
203. 9:47with a laser.
204. 9:49Analysts recognized the weapon by the
205. 9:51laser on the target. It was this rocket
206. 9:53. This changes everything.
207. 9:55The configuration believed to be
208. 9:58standard today is two launchers with
209. 10:01seven rockets each and four more
210. 10:03missiles.
211. 10:05That’s 18 shots per mission instead of
212. 10:08six.
213. 10:10Now think again about the night of
214. 10:12September 29th.
215. 10:14With six shots, a fighter jet could
216. 10:16barely begin the job.
217. 10:18With 18, the outcome of that night would
218. 10:20already be different.
219. 10:23The rockets go for the drones, and the
220. 10:26fighter’s missiles are kept for Russian
221. 10:28cruise missiles.
222. 10:32The Russian trick of drying up the
223. 10:34fighter’s missiles was destroyed by a
224. 10:36cheap rocket.
225. 10:40And a new version is coming that will
226. 10:42use a part from the Russian drone itself
227. 10:44to bring it down.
228. 10:46It is necessary because the next target
229. 10:49is the most difficult: the jet-powered
230. 10:51drone.
231. 10:53Against it, the laser becomes a problem
232. 10:55.
233. 10:56The pilot needs to keep the light point
234. 10:59on the target until impact.
235. 11:01And doing that against something at 600
236. 11:04km per hour at night is very difficult.
237. 11:08The solution is a self-guided rocket,
238. 11:10and it is already being built.
239. 11:14In the United States, the kit
240. 11:16manufacturer signed a contract this year
241. 11:19with the Air Force to create a new
242. 11:22version with an infrared sensor on the
243. 11:25tip, a sensor that sees heat.
244. 11:29And here is the irony.
245. 11:32What made the Russian drone fast enough
246. 11:35to escape cheap defense was the jet
247. 11:37engine.
248. 11:39And to a heat sensor, a jet engine
249. 11:42shines in the sky like a beacon.
250. 11:44This is the part of the drone itself
251. 11:47that will take it down. The engine, the
252. 11:49engine that made the drone escape is the
253. 11:51same one that will give it away.
254. 11:54Now think about what this means for
255. 11:56Russia.
256. 11:58The jet engine, the new body, the higher
257. 12:01price.
258. 12:03All of this was bought to escape
259. 12:05Ukraine's cheap defense.
260. 12:07If cheap defense catches the jet drone,
261. 12:10Russia will have paid dearly for nothing
262. 12:12.
263. 12:15It will go back to trading a $ 200,000
264. 12:17drone for a rocket that costs a small
265. 12:19fraction of that, a rocket older than
266. 12:21Putin himself.
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