Congolese rebels capture Belarusian attack UAV

A variant of the Berkut-BM aerial target was displayed as part of the Mirotvorets counter-UAV system during the MILEX show held in Minsk in June 2021. (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

At least one jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was found after Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) rebels captured Goma International Airport in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The UAV was seen in footage and photographs released by the Rwandan Broadcasting Agency (RBA) on 30 January. It was shown in a shipping container with its wings detached and a Cyrillic document inside a hangar next to one of the Armed Forces of the DRC's (FARDC's) Su-25 ground-attack aircraft. There was a similar container next to it and at least 17 more stacked at the back of the hangar.

With a small turbojet engine fitted between its tails, the UAV looked like the Belarusian Berkut-BM, which is a catapult-launched aerial target designed for air-defence training, but is more likely to be a one-way-attack (OWA) variant, given the context. The use of a Berkut-BM derivative as a weapon was announced during the MILEX show held in Minsk in 2021, when it was described as being part of the Mirotvorets counter-UAV system.

Since then, the Mirotvorets name has been used to identify a ground-attack UAV, including when KB Unmanned Helicopters (UAVHeli) exhibited one for President Aleksandr Lukashenko in September 2024. A video released by the BelTA news agency showed him being told that it was being produced for Belarus and foreign customers and that it had been used by the latter.