The Zlin Z-137 Agro Turbo agricultural plane outfitted with R-73 IR-guided air-to-air missiles could be used as a drone hunter.
A brief video circulating on social media exhibits yet one more results of the Ukrainian ingenuity within the struggle effort, with a crop duster now armed with missiles flying low over a discipline. The plane within the video seems to be a Zlin Z-137 Agro Turbo turboprop-powered agricultural plane, with a brand new paint job and outfitted with two R-73 IR-guided air-to-air missiles, together with what could possibly be two exterior gas tanks.
The circumstances through which the video was captured are unclear, in addition to when and the place. Equally, it’s unclear what number of Z-137s are in Ukraine and what number of may need been transformed to the brand new position.
Moravan Z-137 Agro Turbo turboprop plane, modified for R-73 air to air missile launches, was noticed in Ukraine. Almost certainly used to intercept Shahed kamikaze drones or reconnaissance drones. pic.twitter.com/mLjhkiZvIw
— Particular Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 8, 2025
Armed crop duster
The Z-137 is the turboprop variant of the unique Z-37 Čmelák manufactured in Czechoslovakia from the Sixties to the Nineteen Eighties. Initially propelled by a Soviet-built Ivchenko radial engine, within the Nineteen Eighties the plane acquired a Walter M-601B turboprop engine and have become the Z-37T Agro Turbo, later redesignated Z-137T.
The plane is designed to fly at low altitude and at low velocity, with a stall velocity of 81 km/h (44 knots) within the earlier variants. This makes the Z-137 an excellent platform to hunt drones flying at low altitude and low velocity, releasing up from this mission Ukrainian fighter jets.
This could not be the primary time Ukraine modifies such a small plane to intercept drones. Actually, in 2024 Ukraine already modified Yak-52 piston-prop coaching plane to shoot down Russian drones.
In that case, nevertheless, the armaments consisted solely of a rifle utilized by a second crew member sitting within the again seat. Actually, whereas some preliminary stories talked about the Yak-52s had been retrofitted with wing or fuselage-mounted machine weapons, this was not finished as a result of intensive and technically difficult modifications required to combine such weaponry into the airframe.
The heavy exercise of Russian drones over Ukraine is changing into more and more problematic for the war-torn nation, with a variety of measures put in place to distinction the unmanned property, from old-school searchlights and machineguns to extra trendy digital warfare techniques and surface-to-air missiles. The Zlin Z-137 now seems to be the newest addition to the air protection line-up.
It have to be famous that the Z-137 is just not the one armed crop duster, because the U.S. Air Power is now receiving the OA-1K Skyraider II, primarily based on the Air Tractor AT-802 agricultural plane, and different clients beforehand acquired armed variants of the identical platform. Whereas it seems that there isn’t a U.S. involvement within the conversion of the Z-137’s armed variant, the armed variants of the AT-802 may need been a great inspiration.
R-73
The Vympel R-73 (identified by NATO with the reporting identify of AA-11 Archer) is a short-range air-to-air IR-guided missile, initially developed within the Soviet Union and in service since 1984. It has a reported vary, when fired from airplanes, of a minimum of 30 kilometers, and an 8 kg warhead, much like its Western counterparts just like the ASRAAM, IRIS-T and AIM-9 Sidewinder.
The R-73 changed the Vympel R-60 (AA-8 Aphid for NATO), an older and shorter ranged (from 4 to eight kilometers) IR-guided missile. The weapon is the principle short-range air-to-air missile utilized by Ukrainian MiG-29s and Su-27s, nevertheless additionally it is getting used from surface-based positions.
Actually, in December 2024, Ukraine introduced {that a} Russian Mi-8 helicopter was downed by a naval drone, armed with R-73 air-to-air missiles repurposed as improvised surface-to-air weapons. That was solely the primary of many cases the place the Magura V5 Unmanned Floor Vessel (USV) was noticed armed with R-73s.
The weapon can also be being utilized in different two software, the Gravehawk surface-to-air missile system developed by the UK for Ukraine, and regionally modified Soviet period 9K33 Osa (SA-8 Gecko) and U.S.-supplied Excessive Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Automobiles (HMMWV) outfitted to launch the R-73.
🇺🇦🤩 Ukrainian short-range air protection missile system with two R-73 on the chassis of an armored car HMMWV. pic.twitter.com/Yr0fBBoXzW
— MAKS 25 🇺🇦👀 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) Might 5, 2025
Within the Gravehawk’s case, the missiles are launched from a typical ISO sized delivery container, which additionally contains electrical turbines and an electro-optical/infrared concentrating on digital camera. The container is suitable with extensively used hook-loading vans for straightforward deployment.
Ukrainian forces modified a 9K33 Osa surface-to-air system to fireplace R-73 (AA-11 Archer) short-range air-to-air missiles.
The mission, funded by @BackAndAlive, is the primary time a charity has modernized a SAM system like this. pic.twitter.com/puMXEDKAnb
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) December 11, 2024
Designated Dragon H73 system, the modified HMMWVs noticed the rear seats and the trunk changed by a turret with the rail launchers for the R-73. As for the Osa, the R-73 replaces its 9M33 missiles, with the previous’s rail put in rather than the latter’s containers.
