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The Ukrainian army shot down a Russian helicopter for the first time using a drone. Forbes writes that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) made such attempts back in September 2023. As a result, some Russian aircraft have now begun to escort others. At the same time, the Russian army is beginning to use new drones in attacks on Ukraine, FREEDOM reports.
A Ukrainian two-kilogram drone shot down a Russian Mi-8 helicopter weighing 12 tons. This happened on the eastern outskirts of the Donetsk region at the time of takeoff of the aircraft. Forbes writes that there were three crew members on board, the Mi-8 carried out attack, transport and medical evacuation missions. Analysts say that FPV drone attacks on Russian helicopters may now become a daily practice.
“A helicopter is a relatively slow aircraft, modern drones are quite capable of attacking it, especially during takeoff or landing. Now the command will have to either risk expensive and scarce machines, or equip airfields further from the front,” military analyst Yan Matveyev noted in a comment to the Telegram channel “We Can Explain.”
“You hit a target with one drone, or this drone flies in — bombs, flies in — and bombs again. Therefore, the tactics of warfare are changing. More precise strikes are cheaper. But the drone does not completely replace artillery, and missiles will still play their role in parallel with the use of drones,” commented Valeriy Borovik, commander of the White Eagle special strike drone unit.
At the beginning of 2024, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine announced that this year the state could produce more than a million drones. But already now, Ukraine’s production potential in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has tripled.
Deputy Minister for Strategic Industries and Industry of Ukraine Anna Gvozdyar notes that the only problem is funding. According to her, drone manufacturers are financed by both the state and international partners. In particular, Canada has agreed to purchase some Ukrainian-made drones for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Negotiations are also underway with Great Britain.
“Plus or minus 2 thousand km — these are achievable goals now. Goals such as infrastructure that supports drone production, military equipment production, as well as military targets, energy facilities. This is a good response from our side to their invasion — strikes on their targets,” emphasized Valeriy Borovik, commander of the White Eagle special strike drone unit.
In response to Ukraine’s achievements in UAV production, Russia decided to demonstrate its new Gerbera drone. Propaganda media praised the drone’s capabilities, but it turned out that it is far from perfect. The Gerbera is made of foam plastic and has a number of shortcomings. As Defence Express writes, the strike version of the drone uses a television channel with a rather mediocre camera when aiming at a target, and the operator manually guides it. The range of the drone with a warhead is likely small – up to 100 km.
“Homemade assembly indicates a reduction in the cost of production technologies in this war, as well as the difficulty for the Russian military-industrial complex to mass-produce other models due to sanctions and restrictions. Russia is dependent on countries that help circumvent sanctions and obtain components for weapons production. Suppose they “screw on” more, and also knock out Russian military-industrial complex enterprises. In that case, the regime will not be able to continue intensive terror,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Russia could have demonstrated the power of the Gerbera on the night of July 30-31. Then, Ukrainian cities were attacked by almost 100 drones. A serviceman and specialist in radio technology, Sergei Beskrestnov, call sign “Flash,” suggested that this is why there were so many of them, and the Ukrainian air defense was able to shoot them all down.
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Earlier, the head of the DroneUA group of companies, an expert in the field of unmanned technologies and robotics, Valeriy Yakovenko, said on air at FREEDOM that the defeat of a Russian helicopter by a Ukrainian FPV drone opens up another area of application for drones.
