Ukraine’s military took out a Russian Mi-28 military helicopter using a cheap remote-controlled aerial drone, according to reports.
Sources from Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency told Ukrainian outlets Suspline and the Kyiv Post that Ukrainian special forces used a first-person view (FPV) remotely-guided drone to take down the helicopter in Kursk Oblast in Russia.
This is where Russia’s defense ministry said Ukrainian forces had this week launched a rare cross-border attack.
Russia said a state of emergency had been declared in Kursk following Tuesday’s cross-border raid. It said the raid involved 1,000 Ukrainian troops, 11 tanks, and more than 20 armored combat vehicles.
Footage published by the outlets showed a drone apparently flying into the propeller at the back of the helicopter and detonating.
The Kyiv Post, citing Russian military bloggers, said that Russia had lost two helicopters, including a Ka-52 attack helicopter and the Mi-28 in the attack.
Basic FPV drones cost are believed to cost between $500 and $1,000, according to Drone XL. A Mi-28 military helicopter is estimated to cost around $18 million, per Defense Mirror.
This isn’t the first time Ukraine is believed to have successfully attacked a Russian helicopter using drones.
In July, Russian military bloggers said that Ukraine had shot down a Russian Mi-8 military helicopter using drones in Donetsk, east Ukraine.
According to reports, Ukraine has also scored recent successes using FPV drones to intercept more expensive Russian reconnaissance drones.
The Ukrainian military has innovated the use of cheap drones to surveil the battlefield and fitted them with bombs to attack Russian armored vehicles and military positions.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US think tank, said Wednesday that if Ukraine can build on its recent successes using the “relatively cheap and widely-available” drones, it could conserve its air defense systems.
Ukraine has improvized and innovated to offset Russia’s huge manpower and equipment advantages during the two-year war against the Russian invasion.
Russia has also boosted the number of drones it’s using on the battlefield and is getting better at using electronic warfare against Ukraine, but Ukraine is believed to have the edge when it comes to technological innovation, analysts at the Atlantic Council said in January.
“Russian and Ukrainian forces are engaged in a technological offense-defense race and Ukraine’s ability to field technological innovations at scale ahead of Russian adaptations is crucial for Ukraine’s ability to offset Russia’s current materiel advantages,” the ISW said Wednesday.
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