Meet Morok: the secret Ukrainian drone that can fly long distances

One of the most important lessons taught by the war unfolding in Ukraine is that drones have become an unprecedented tool in modern war. Drones are being used not only for defense but also to project power long-range.

Long-range drone strikes on the Kremlin's military assets inside of Russia are one of the few ways Kyiv has been trying to equalize the fight with the resources it can muster, which is why the Morok drone was developed.

On September 9th, Kyiv’s new long-range drone was revealed by the country’s Security Service on Facebook as part of a fundraising campaign that aimed to fund the purchase of thirty-three of the new drone models. 

Photo Credit: Facebook @SecurSerUkraine

Ukraine codenamed their new drone Morok and the total cost to fully fund the purchase of the 33 drones stood at ₴60 million hryvnias or roughly $1.24 million dollars according to the post by Ukraine’s Security Service. 

Defense Express broke down the cost of the Morok based on the figures presented by Ukraine's Security Service and reported that each drone likely costs roughly $50,000, though the military news organization noted that may include the cost of development. 

“This might be the most long-range weapon in Ukraine's arsenal, except for maybe the Bober drone, the range of which is yet unknown but might reach 1,400 km at most,” wrote Defense Express in a review of the Morok. 

Photo Credit: Instagram @CovertShores

Few other details were provided at the time but the post included two photos of the new drone that revealed the size of the weapon as well as a general idea of what the Morok looked like while concealed inside its flight hanger. 

Pictured: Ukraine's UJ-26 Beaver Kamikaze Drone drone Photo Credit: Instagram @siriy_ua

From the images, Defense Express was able to make out that the design of Kyiv’s new drone was somewhat unique in that it adopted canards but lacked a foreplane usually found on the aircraft design and also had a vertical stabilizer. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons: By Peter Gronemann, CC BY 2.0

“The shape of the airframe is quite unusual: the general wing configuration resembles a canard, yet it has no foreplane and has a vertical stabilizer,” Defense Express explained while adding it was “rather rare in modern aviation tailless configuration.”

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons: By Olivier Cleynen, CC BY-SA 3.0

The canard style of aircraft design was popular among the fighter jets built between the 1960s and 1970s according to Defense Express. However, the pictures attached to the Facebook post were only renders and may not reveal all of the drone’s details. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons: By Alan Wilson, CC BY-SA 2.0

There are several fighter jets and other airplanes that have sported the canard in their design in the past, including France’s Dassault Mirage fighter, the American SR-71 Blackbird, the British supersonic Concorde airliner, and the Russian Tupolev Tu-144 airliner. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons: By USAF Judson Brohmer, Public Domain

Ukrainian military news website Militarnyi reported that the Morok was designed with an engine that has a pusher rotor in the rear of the drone and added that the propulsion of the drone uses an internal combustion engine. 

Pictured: MQ-9 Reaper/ Photo Credit: Wiki Commons: By Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt - commons file, Public Domain

Little is known about the secretive drone but The Economist reported that the Morok was first used on August 25th in an attack on a military base inside of Crimea with many of the drone’s prototypes being involved. 

We do know that the Morok can fly upwards of 500 miles and can also carry a payload of 66 pounds or about 30 kilos. This is on par with some cruise missiles and the American Hydra 70 missile. 

Pictured: Wreckage of a Ukrainian Morok drone that circulated Russian social media / Photo Credit: Twitter @CovertShores

“A source close to the developers of Morok… says Ukraine’s new aerial strike capacity is the result of ‘seeds sown many months ago,’” The Economist reported, adding that the developers of the drone were hoping to scale its production. 

However, previous funding for the Morok largely came from benefactors other than the Ukrainian government. On October 10th, the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation posted a three-day campaign on Facebook calling for more donors to help fund the new drone. 

Photo Credit: Facebook @prytulafoundation

The charity organization was hoping to raise ₴175 hryvnias or roughly $5 million dollars to help fund the purchase of 100 more Morok drones that could be used against Russia and targets in the Russian military’s rear in support of the counter-offensive. 

“Fast and capable of carrying a heavy payload over several hundred kilometers, Morok is among the more promising fixed-wing kamikaze designs,” The Economist wrote, and maybe it even has the power to help transform the war. 

Pictured: Leleka-100 / Photo Credit: Wiki Commons: By VoidWanderer - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0