Tupolev Tu-143
The Tupolev Tu-143 Reys was a Soviet unmanned reconnaissance aircraft in service with the Soviet Army and a number of its Warsaw Pact and Middle East allies during the late 1970s and 1980s. It contained a reconnaissance pod that was recovered after flight, and from which imagery was retrieved.
History
Development
The Tu-143 was introduced in 1976 and strongly resembled the Tu-141, but was substantially scaled-down. It was a short-range tactical reconnaissance system and had low-level flight capability. The Tu-143 was truck-launched with JATO boosting, recovered by parachute, and powered by a TR3-117 turbojet with 5.8 kN thrust. The initial version carried film cameras, but later versions carried a TV or radiation detection payload, with data relayed to a ground station over a datalink. Some 950 units were produced in the 1970s and 1980s.Operation history
The Tu-143 was used by Syria in reconnaissance missions over Israel and Lebanon during the 1982 Lebanon War, as well as by Soviet forces in Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War.During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine appeared to use them to spot Russian air defences and as an ersatz cruise missile. On 29 June 2022, one Tu-143 carrying explosives was shot down in Kursk Oblast.
During the 2020s Israel–Hezbollah conflict Israel claimed that they destroyed a Hezbollah "DR-3 cruise missile" which they illustrated with images of the Tupolev Tu-143.
M-143 variant
A target drone version, the M-143, was introduced in the mid-1980s.Tu-243 variant
The Tu-143 was followed into service in the late 1990s by the similar but improved "Tu-243 Reys-D", with a 25 cm fuselage stretch, to provide greater fuel capacity and about twice the range; it had an uprated TR3-117 engine with 6.28 kN thrust; and improved low-altitude guidance.Tu-300 variant
Since 1995, Tupolev began promoting the further refined "Tu-300 Korshun", which resembles its predecessors but is fitted with a nose antenna dome and nose fairings for modern sensors and electronic systems. It also features a centerline pylon for a sensor pod or munitions. Financial issues forced a halt to development at the end of the 1990s, but work was resumed in 2007.Operators
Current operators
- : In service as of 2016 as targets.
- : Received VR-3s in 1984.
- Hezbollah
Former operators
- : retired
- : VR-3 Rejs, retired in 1995
- : Received two squadrons in 1984
- : VR-3 in service from 1987 until the early 2000s
- : VR-3 Rejs, retired
- : Passed to successor states
Specifications