Those ‘elves’ aviators.
Dogfighting with ‘orcs’ drones.
In their 1970s-vintage propeller plane.
World War I style.
Seem to have inspired.
A movement.
Now more ‘elves’ are preparing.
To take to the sky.
In slow-flying prop planes.
—and hunt down the ‘orcs’ drones.
Buzzing over.
Vulnerable bases and cities.
A video that circulated.
On social media.
this weekend.
Depicts crews.
From the ‘elves’.
Intelligence directorate.
In a locally-made Aeroprakt.
A-22 sport plane.
A gunner in the left-side seat.
Of the two-seat plane.
Takes aim at a target drone.
With his assault rifle.
The intelligence directorate’s.
Tactics aren’t dissimilar.
To the tactics developed.
By the crew of.
A Yakovlev Yak-52 training plane.
Apparently borrowed from.
An ‘elves’ flying club.
That has been shooting down.
That has been shooting down.
‘Orcs’ drones.
Over southern Ukraine.
Since mid-April.
A gunner in the back seat.
Of the Yak-52.
Has been firing a shotgun at.
The slow- and low-flying drones.
The Yak-52 crew’s methods.
Are effective and.
Perhaps most importantly.
Inexpensive.
Those ‘elves’ aviators.
Dogfighting with ‘orcs’ drones.
In their 1970s-vintage propeller plane.
World War I style.
Seem to have inspired.
A movement.
Now more ‘elves’ are preparing.
To take to the sky.
In slow-flying prop planes.
—and hunt down the ‘orcs’ drones.
Buzzing over.
Vulnerable bases and cities.
‘Elves’ forces can’t.
Afford to fire.
The biggest and best.
Air-defense missiles.
—which can weigh thousands of pounds.
And cost millions of dollars apiece—
At a 33-pound Orlan-10 drone.
Costing just $100,000.
A Yak-52 or.
A-22 costs just.
A few hundred dollars.
An hour to operate.
A few shotgun shells.
Or rifle rounds.
Cost almost nothing.
It should come as no surprise.
That the ‘elves’.
Intelligence directorate.
has turned to the A-22.
For drone-defense missions.
The A-22 is the kind of plane.
A middle-class hobby pilot.
Might buy for fun jaunts.
Over the local airport.
‘Elves’ forces already.
Deploy the $90,000.
A-22s in combat.
—as strike drones.
A-22s converted.
For autonomous flight.
And packed.
With explosives.
Have ranged.
Hundreds of miles into.
‘Mordor’ to hit military.
And industrial targets.
If there’s a downside.
To the A-22.
Compared to the Yak-52.
It’s the former’s anemic engine.
A 1,000-pound.
A-22’s.
Rotax engine generates.
100 horsepower.
While a 3,000-pound.
Yak-52’s.
Vedeneyev engine generates.
360 horsepower.
With its superior power-to-weight ratio.
A Yak-52 might be better.
In a tight turning fight.
With a drone.
But any.
Drone-killing plane is.
Better than no.
Drone-killing plane.
Those ‘elves’ aviators.
Dogfighting with ‘orcs’ drones.
In their 1970s-vintage propeller plane.
World War I style.
Seem to have inspired.
A movement.
Now more ‘elves’ are preparing.
To take to the sky.
In slow-flying prop planes.
—and hunt down the ‘orcs’ drones.
Buzzing over.
Vulnerable bases and cities.
Ukraine is desperate to shoot down.
The dozens of ‘orcs’ surveillance drones.
That wing over ‘elves’ cities and bases.
With near impunity every day.
In a startling three days last week.
‘Orcs’ drones flew over ‘elves’ airfields.
Spotting targets for.
Iskander ballistic missiles.
The ‘elves’ lost at least.
Three precious fighter jets.
In those raids.
—all because.
They couldn’t shoot down.
The drones before the drones.
Located the planes.
On the ground.
To be fair.
A dogfighting sport plane.
Might not be the best option.
For protecting an active airfield.
The sport plane could post.
A hazard to warplanes.
While they’re taking off.
And landing.
But if A-22s.
Or other light planes can protect.
Say, cities in southern Ukraine.
They could free up.
Heavier ground-based.
Air defenses to.
Relocate to.
Vulnerable air bases.
Those ‘elves’ aviators.
Dogfighting with ‘orcs’ drones.
In their 1970s-vintage propeller plane.
World War I style.
Seem to have inspired.
A movement.
Now more ‘elves’ are preparing.
To take to the sky.
In slow-flying prop planes.
—and hunt down the ‘orcs’ drones.
Buzzing over.
Vulnerable bases and cities.
*Because I read “Ukraine Is Mobilizing More Propeller Planes To Shoot Down Russian Drones, World War I Style” by David Axe on 8 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:
Ukraine Mobilizes More Propeller Planes To Shoot Down Russian Drones (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.
