‘Orcs’ are getting.
Really fed up with.
The ‘elves’ crew of that.
Yakovlev Yak-52 training plane.
That has been dogfighting with.
And shooting down.
‘Orcs’ surveillance drones.
—World War I-style.
In three months.
Two aviators riding in a Yak-52.
—a front-seat pilot.
And a back-seat gunner—
Have taken out at least.
12 ‘orcs’ drones.
If you believe.
The kill markings.
The kill markings.
The crew has painted.
On the side of.
The 1970s-vintage plane.
The problem for the ‘orcs’.
Is that a Yak-52 is.
Hard to knock down.
For the same reason.
It’s an effective platform.
For a shotgun-armed crew member.
Taking potshots at.
Nearby drones.
The Yakovlev is robust.
And inconspicuous.
A propeller-driven Yak-52.
Doesn’t paint a very big picture.
On the radar screens.
of ‘orcs’ beleaguered long-range.
Air defense batteries.
And even if you damage.
A Yak-52 by, say.
Ramming it with a drone.
—the crew could probably.
Still land the plane.
‘Orcs’ are getting.
Really fed up with.
The ‘elves’ crew of that.
Yakovlev Yak-52 training plane.
That has been dogfighting with.
And shooting down.
‘Orcs’ surveillance drones.
—World War I-style.
It wasn’t a new problem.
Apparently searching for.
An efficient method of eliminating.
$100,000 ‘orcs’ drones.
Without firing.
A $4-million Patriot missile.
Or some other pricey.
Air defense munition.
Back in April.
The ‘elves’ began taking.
To the air.
In that Yak-52.
Maneuvering to within.
Shotgun range of intruding drones.
—and blasting them.
Out of the air.
It worked so well that.
Earlier this month.
The ‘elves’ intelligence directorate.
Began training gunners.
To hunt ‘orcs’.
Unmanned aerial vehicles.
From locally-made Aeroprakt.
A-22 sport planes.
The Yakovlev crew’s.
Successful hunts have inspired.
A whole new.
Anti-drone tactic.
The ‘orcs’ are losing patience.
As their losses pile up.
But it’s not clear.
What the ‘orcs’ military can do.
‘Orcs’ are getting.
Really fed up with.
The ‘elves’ crew of that.
Yakovlev Yak-52 training plane.
That has been dogfighting with.
And shooting down.
‘Orcs’ surveillance drones.
—World War I-style.
About the Yak-52.
Its patrol zone is.
At least 50 miles from.
The nearest ‘orcs’ position.
But the closest.
‘Orcs’ air defense batteries.
Are probably.
Much farther away.
As ‘elves’ drone and missile raids.
Continue to deplete their numbers.
And drive them farther.
From the front line.
In any event a Yak-52.
Might be tough to detect.
One 1976 study found.
That a Cessna 172.
—a propeller plane similar to.
A Yak-52 in size and shape—
Presents a radar cross-section.
Of less than a square meter.
From certain angles.
That’s a quarter.
The radar cross-section of.
A typical fighter jet.
‘Orcs’ are getting.
Really fed up with.
The ‘elves’ crew of that.
Yakovlev Yak-52 training plane.
That has been dogfighting with.
And shooting down.
‘Orcs’ surveillance drones.
—World War I-style.
The ‘orcs’ operators.
Of the very drones.
The Yak-52 crew has been hunting.
Could try to ram the ‘elves’ plane.
It wouldn’t be unprecedented.
On many occasions.
In ‘orcs’ 28-month wider war.
On Ukraine.
‘Orcs’ and ‘elves’ crews.
Have downed enemy drones.
By running their own drones.
Into them.
But it’s one thing for two drones.
Each weighing just a few pounds.
To tangle in mid-air:
Either could destroy the other.
But smash a 20-pound.
ZALA surveillance drone into.
A 1.5-ton Yak-52 and the damage.
Might not be catastrophic.
‘Orcs’ are getting.
Really fed up with.
The ‘elves’ crew of that.
Yakovlev Yak-52 training plane.
That has been dogfighting with.
And shooting down.
‘Orcs’ surveillance drones.
—World War I-style.
*Because I read “‘Isn’t It Time To Shoot Him Down?’ Russians Grow Frustrated With Ukraine’s Yak-52 Drone-Killer.” by David Axe on 14 Jul 2024 on the Forbes, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 Apr 2022 on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem.
Please read the original story on the Forbes:
‘Time To Shoot Him Down,’ Russian Says of Odesa’s Yak-52 Drone-Killer (forbes.com)
**My friend kindly shows you this poem in one page of the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Please join them! You can read my 100 poems here at once.
