
Tupolev Tu-141

The Tupolev Tu-141 Strizh (Swift, ) is a Soviet reconnaissance drone that served with the Soviet Red Army during the late 1970s and 1980s.
Development.
The Tu-141 was a follow-on to the Tupolev Tu-123 and was a relatively large, medium-range reconnaissance drone. It was designed to undertake reconnaissance missions several hundred kilometers behind the front lines at transonic speeds. It could carry a range of payloads, including film cameras, infrared imagers, EO imagers, and imaging radar.
As with previous Tupolev designs, it had a dart-like rear-mounted delta wing, forward-mounted canards, and a KR-17A turbojet engine mounted above the tail. It was launched from a trailer using a solid-propellant booster and landed with the aid of a tail-mounted parachute.
The Tu-141 was in Soviet service from 1979 to 1989, mostly on the western borders of the Soviet Union.
Combat usage.
The Tu-141 was pressed back into service by the Ukrainian Air Force for the War in Donbass.
References.
This article contains material that originally came from the web article "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" by Greg Goebel, which exists in the Public Domain.