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Ukraine reverse-engineers Chinese drone, builds $48k 2,000 km MICH 2000 that downed Tu-95MS
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Ukraine’s SBU Alpha unit deployed a locally built MICH 2000 drone, reverse-engineered from a Chinese ZTK-150 after covert factory photography, to destroy a Russian Tu-95MS bomber at Engels-2 with a 2,000 km range and a $48,000 unit cost while producing about 6,000 per year.
The MICH 2000 provides a low-cost, long-range strike option that leverages domestic manufacturing and reduces reliance on foreign suppliers for deep-penetration missions. Its ability to carry a 60 kg warhead over 2,000 km at $48,000 per unit changes the cost calculus for attacking high-value Russian assets such as strategic bombers. However, the need for expensive, scarce jam-resistant CRPA navigation antennas and vulnerability to Russian electronic warfare limit its effectiveness in heavily contested environments.
Written by elseif from the cluster below · every claim links back to a sourceThe three things worth knowing
The MICH 2000 is a reverse-engineered copy of the Chinese ZTK-150 obtained after covert photography of the factory line.
Each unit costs $48,000, carries a 60 kg warhead up to 2,000 km, and about 6,000 are produced yearly.
The drone destroyed a Russian Tu-95MS bomber at Engels-2, demonstrating Ukraine’s new long-range strike capability.
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What the cluster adds up to.
Ukraine’s SBU Alpha unit obtained a MICH 2000 drone after reverse-engineering a Chinese ZTK-150 that was photographed covertly at a factory. The drone is a flying-wing design with a 2,000 km range and a 60 kg warhead. It costs $48,000 per unit in base configuration, $2,000 less than the original Chinese model. This gives Ukraine a new long-range strike capability that was previously unavailable.
The manufacturer reports domestic content of about 85% of the drone’s value, sourced from dozens of Ukrainian suppliers. Adding a jam-resistant CRPA navigation antenna reduces domestic content to roughly 55% because the antenna costs $20,000-$25,000 and only a few firms make it. The company builds around 6,000 MICH 2000 drones each year across eight variants, reinvesting roughly $1 million monthly in R&D. Production is scaling toward 10,000 units annually, with options for analog, digital or Starlink communications.
In combat, Alpha has launched thousands of MICH 2000s at hundreds of targets, including a Wildberries logistics hub, an anti-Starlink EW site near Gelendzhik and the port of Ust-Luga. The Engels-2 strike removed the tail section of a Tu-95MS bomber, later confirmed by satellite imagery. Early prototypes suffered crashes and electronic-warfare losses, yet production proceeded. The drone’s reliance on scarce CRPA antennas and susceptibility to Russian EW limit its effectiveness in heavily contested airspace.
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