{{Short description|Aircraft in the Soviet Army}} <!-- This article is a part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft. Please see Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout, and guidelines. --> {{Infobox aircraft | name = Tupolev Tu-143 Reys | image = Tu-143 Reis.jpg | caption = Tu-143 "Reys" | type = unmanned reconnaissance aircraft | manufacturer = Tupolev | designer = | first_flight = 1970 <br />(Tu-243 1987) | introduction = 1976 (Army i.e. Ground Forces, SSV) <br />1982 (Air Force, VVS) <br />(Tu-243 1999) | retired = | status = Active | primary_user = Soviet Union<br />Russia<br />Ukraine <br />Hezbollah | more_users = | produced = 1973–1989 (Tu-243 1994-) | number_built = 950 | program cost = | unit cost = | developed_from = Tupolev Tu-141 | variants = | developed_into = }}
The '''Tupolev Tu-143''' '''''Reys''''' (Cruise, {{langx|ru|Рейс}}; also '''''Reis''''', '''''Rejs''''') 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.<ref>The ''Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History: A Political, Social, and Military History'', ABC-CLIO, 12 May 2008, by Spencer C. Tucker, Priscilla Mary Roberts, page 1055</ref>
==History==
===Development=== thumb|right|300px|Tu-143 with launcher
The Tu-143 was introduced in 1976 and strongly resembled the Tu-141, but was substantially scaled-down. It was a short-range (60–70 kilometer) 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 (590 kgf, 1300 lbf) 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.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://eurasiantimes.com/ukraine-celebrates-as-russia-shoots-down-its-tupolev-tu-143-drone/?amp | title=Cheering Its Own Misery – Why Did Ukraine 'Celebrate' Downing Of Its Own Tupolev Tu-143 Drone By Russia? | date=April 18, 2022}}</ref> On 29 June 2022, one Tu-143 carrying explosives was shot down in Kursk Oblast.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://eurasiantimes.com/cruise-missile-or-suicide-drone-russia-shoots-down-tu-143 |title= Cruise Missile or Suicide Drone – Russia Shoots Down Invading Tu-143 Inside Its Airspace With Buk Missile |date= July 1, 2022}}</ref>
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.<ref name=Altman>{{cite news |last1=Altman |first1=Howard|last2=Rogoway |first2=Tyler |date=23 September 2024 |title=Hezbollah Converted Soviet Tu-143 Jet Recon Drone Into Cruise Missile Says IDF, Just Like Ukraine |url=https://www.twz.com/news-features/hezbollah-converted-soviet-tu-143-jet-drone-into-cruise-missile-says-idf-just-like-ukraine |work=The War Zone |location= |access-date=24 September 2024}}</ref>
===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 (10 inch) fuselage stretch, to provide greater fuel capacity and about twice the range; it had an uprated TR3-117 engine with 6.28 kN (640 kgf, 1,410 lbf) thrust; and improved low-altitude guidance.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arms-expo.ru/site.xp/049055055056124052052048048.html |title=ВР-3 "Рейс", комплекс воздушной разведки с беспилотным летательным аппаратом Ту-143 — ОРУЖИЕ РОССИИ, Федеральный электронный справочник вооружения и военной техники |website=www.arms-expo.ru |access-date=12 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091024234355/http://www.arms-expo.ru/site.xp/049055055056124052052048048.html |archive-date=24 October 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
===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=== * {{BLR}}{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} * {{PRK}}{{sfn|Chun|2016|pages=46−47}} * {{RUS}}: In service as of 2016 as targets.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arms-expo.ru/049057054048124050053054049052.html|title=Воздушные мишени – вторая жизнь зенитных ракет — ОРУЖИЕ РОССИИ, Информационное агентство|publisher=Arms-expo.ru|accessdate=2013-09-03|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111025054137/http://www.arms-expo.ru/049057054048124050053054049052.html|archivedate=2011-10-25}}</ref><ref>The Military Balance 2016, p. 190</ref> * {{SYR}}: Received VR-3s in 1984.{{sfn|Zaloga|2011|page=20}} * {{UKR}}<ref>{{cite news |last1=Axe |first1=David |title=Ukraine’s Seven-Ton Strike Drones Are Back In Action |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/03/16/ukraines-seven-ton-strike-drones-are-back-in-action/?sh=78046f4865af |access-date=17 March 2024 |work=Forbes |date=16 March 2024 |language=en}}</ref> * Hezbollah (Named DR-3)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rogoway |first=Howard Altman, Tyler |date=2024-09-23 |title=Hezbollah Converted Soviet Tu-143 Jet Recon Drone Into Cruise Missile Says IDF, Just Like Ukraine |url=https://www.twz.com/news-features/hezbollah-converted-soviet-tu-143-jet-drone-into-cruise-missile-says-idf-just-like-ukraine |access-date=2025-10-28 |website=The War Zone |language=en-US}}</ref>
===Former operators=== * {{BUL}}: retired{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} * {{CZE}}: VR-3 Rejs, retired in 1995{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} * {{CZS}}: Received two squadrons in 1984{{sfn|Zaloga|2011|page=20}} * {{flag|Republic of Iraq|1991}}{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} * {{ROM}}: VR-3 in service from 1987 until the early 2000s<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aripi-argintii.ro/aparatdezbor.php?p=110|title=VR-3 (TU-143)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711161142/http://www.aripi-argintii.ro/aparatdezbor.php?p=110|archive-date=11 July 2017|language=ro|work=Aripi Argintii}}</ref> * {{SVK}}: VR-3 Rejs, retired{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} * {{USSR}}: Passed to successor states{{sfn|Zaloga|2011|page=20}}
==Specifications==
Tupolev TU-143 Reys: *wingspan 2.24 m (7 ft 4 in) *length 8.06 m (26 ft 5 in) *height 1.54 m (5 ft 1 in) *launch weight 1,230 kg (2,710 lb) *maximum speed 950 km/h (515 kn, 590 mph) *engine Klimov turbojet TR3-117 *service ceiling 5,000 m (16,400 ft) *range 200 km (110 nmi, 125 mi)
==References== This article contains material that originally came from the web article {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20130906050948/http://www.vectorsite.net/twdrn.html ''Unmanned Aerial Vehicles'']}} by Greg Goebel, which exists in the Public Domain. {{reflist}}
===Bibliography=== *{{cite book |last1=Zaloga |first1=Steven J. |title=Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Robotic Air Warfare 1917–2007 |date=20 July 2011 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-84603-786-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kf6TCwAAQBAJ |author1-link=Steven J. Zaloga |language=en}} *{{cite journal |last1=Chun |first1=In-Bum |title=Chapter 3: North Korea's Offset Strategy |journal=Breakthrough on the Peninsula: Third Offset Strategies and the Future Defense of Korea |date=2016 |pages=39–49 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep06350.6?seq=7 |publisher=Center for a New American Security}}
==External links== {{commons category}} * [http://www.valka.cz/clanek_10610.html Czech Tu-143/VR-3 Rejs in museum] with transport vehicle and launcher
{{Tupolev aircraft}}
Tu-0143 Category:Unmanned aerial vehicles of the Soviet Union