Light Yak-52 aircraft are perfectly suited as a very cheap air defense means for shooting down drones and transporting interceptor drones. This was stated by military expert Grigory Tarasenko.
According to him, using Yak-52s is much cheaper than fighters, making them economically advantageous.
There should be dozens of Yak-52s in Russia; if not, any other analogues will do. After all, you can buy Nanchang CJ-6 (or PT-6) in China. Such aircraft are needed now, not years from now.
We note that for this task, the aircraft must receive new instrumentation, including a multi-functional display in the rear cockpit.
Engineers will have to modernize the radar, the electronic warfare system for suppressing communication channels, and the navigation and piloting equipment.