{"id":64922,"date":"2026-05-10T21:32:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T19:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=64922"},"modified":"2026-05-17T20:51:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:51:51","slug":"usa-seeks-to-emulate-a-daring-ukrainian-drone-incursion-into-shipping-containers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/05\/10\/usa-seeks-to-emulate-a-daring-ukrainian-drone-incursion-into-shipping-containers\/","title":{"rendered":"USA seeks to emulate a daring Ukrainian drone incursion into shipping containers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Ukrainian Armed Forces have been demonstrating a high level of ingenuity in their fight against the Russian invaders since 2022.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/06\/01\/ukraines-audacious-long-range-attack-on-several-russian-bomber-bases\/\">Ukraine's audacious long-range attack on several Russian bomber bases<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/04\/21\/the-latvian-army-learns-to-use-drones-from-top-experts-ukrainian-soldiers\/\">The Latvian Army learns to use drones from top experts: Ukrainian soldiers<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>One of Ukraine's boldest operations against the invaders was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/06\/01\/ukraines-audacious-long-range-attack-on-several-russian-bomber-bases\/\">Operation Pavutyna (Spider Web) by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)<\/a>, in which this intelligence service managed to attack Russian air bases at a great distance (the furthest being located 4,900 km from Ukraine) <strong>hitting 41 Russian aircraft using swarms of drones hidden in containers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54560456146_913780ff9c_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54560456146_621f07e1a6_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Those containers were brought into Russian territory using civilian trucks<\/strong>, as if they were any other kind of merchandise. On June 1, 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/StratcomCentre\/status\/1929168054883074418\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">STRATCOM published these three photos of the logistical process of the operation<\/a>, which was planned over a year and a half.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54560691493_639aef6545_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54560691493_4455022be4_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The trucks were driven to the vicinity of the attacked bases<\/strong>, to a distance where Russian air defenses were unable to counter the threat. <strong>Once there, the tops of the containers opened<\/strong>, and swarms of drones took off in search of their targets.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54560785315_219d68110d_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54560785315_5b062ed165_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once the drones had taken off and the attack was over, <strong>the trucks self-destructed, so as not to leave any remains for the Russians<\/strong> that would allow them to learn more about the details of this operation.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"665\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\ude9b\ud83d\udca5This is how the attack on the Russian military airfield in Belaya, Irkutsk region, 4400 km from the front, took place. <\/p>\n<p>One after another, FPV drones flew out from a cargo truck parked not far from the airbase. After the end of the mission, as reported by local Russian\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JcHfeRHOOC\">https:\/\/t.co\/JcHfeRHOOC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YY0GquV6pr\">pic.twitter.com\/YY0GquV6pr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Special Kherson Cat \ud83d\udc08\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@bayraktar_1love) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bayraktar_1love\/status\/1929150997785465076?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, <strong>The War Zone (TWZ)<\/strong>, a US website specializing in defense issues, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twz.com\/news-features\/drone-swarms-packed-into-unassuming-containers-sought-by-darpa\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">published an article indicating that the United States is interested in being able to carry out operations of this type<\/a>. TWZ notes that <strong>the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has requested proposals for drones <em>\"with a high degree of autonomous operation<\/strong>, as well as remotely-operated containerized systems to launch, recover, and otherwise support them. What DARPA is really interested in is <strong>a pairing that can be employed as part of a largely self-sustaining \u201cautonomous constellation\u201d<\/strong> capable of supporting networked swarms consisting of as many as <strong>500 drones at once<\/strong>.\"<\/em><\/p>\n<p>TWZ points out that such a drone constellation <em>\"<strong>could be readily deployed in contested areas, or even potentially positioned deep behind enemy lines<\/strong>,\"<\/em> and cites the example of Operation Pavutyna, carried out by Ukraine against Russian air bases last year. <strong>In May 2024, prior to the aforementioned Ukrainian attack, Northrop Grumman had already released this video of its Modular Payload System<\/strong>, which consists of a container that allows for the launch of various payloads, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and missiles.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Modular Payload System: Launching from Land or Sea\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NZV3MHKyMnA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In September 2022, the Ukrainian channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@UkrainianMilitaryYouTube\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ukrainian Military YouTube<\/a> <strong>published these images of Iranian Shahed 136 attack drones being launched from containers<\/strong>. It's worth noting that this drone model is being widely used by Russia to indiscriminately attack civilian targets in Ukraine:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0411\u0430\u0440\u0430\u0436\u0443\u044e\u0447\u0438\u0439 \u0456\u0440\u0430\u043d\u0441\u044c\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0431\u043e\u0454\u043f\u0440\u0438\u043f\u0430\u0441 \u00abShahed 136\u00bb\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZugQ8k3HeYQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ukraine's option in Operation Pavutyna was more discreet<\/strong>, as it involved small drones mounted on top of modified containers. Their location would be even more difficult than the Northrop Grumman and Shahed 136 launchers. According to TWZ, <strong>the DARPA program would include drones ranging from less than 25 kg to 600 kg<\/strong>, <em>\"highly deployable, versatile-SWaP Group 1-3 platforms, <strong>operating in autonomous constellations that are stored within, deployed from, recovered in, and managed by a fully autonomous container<\/strong>, to support a variety of payloads and missions in GPS-denied environments.\"<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ukrainian Armed Forces have been demonstrating a high level of ingenuity in their fight against the Russian invaders since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11550],"tags":[24034,7519,27048,27047,24583,10731,16153,19712,15307,10431],"class_list":["post-64922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-defense","tag-defense-advanced-research-projects-agency-darpa","tag-drones","tag-modular-payload-system","tag-northrop-grumman","tag-operation-pavutyna","tag-russia","tag-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-of-2022","tag-security-service-of-ukraine-sbu","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-28 19:26:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64922\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}