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A Two-Pound Ukrainian Drone Just Shot Down A 12-Ton Russian Helicopter (www.forbes.com)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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It may be the first time a drone has destroyed a helicopter in mid-air.

Ukrainian forces deploy more than 100,000 explosive first-person-view drones a month all along the 700-mile front line of Russia’s 28-month wider war on Ukraine. The drones smash into armored vehicles, chase down exposed infantry and follow artillery fire back to its origin in order to target Russian howitzers.

And today one of the small quadcopter drones—remotely steered by an operator wearing a virtual-reality headset—shot down a Russian helicopter, apparently for the first time.

Photos and videos that circulated on social media depict the Mil Mi-8 transport helicopter burning near Donetsk in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. “A speedy recovery to the survivors,” one Russian blogger wrote.

This new use of explosive drones has been a long time coming. As long ago as September, Ukrainian operators first tried ramming their flying robots into Russian helicopters mid-flight. The drone threat got so serious that the Russian air force began assigning some helicopters to escort other helicopters.

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[-] nkat2112@sh.itjust.works 86 points 3 months ago

Slava Ukraini.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 52 points 3 months ago

Haven't gotten to do one of these for a while...

[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 30 points 3 months ago

If you post that every time Russia loses an aircraft to Ukraine, Riker is going to be out of breath.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago

Only when they lose a manned aircraft because of a two-pound drone.

[-] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

Virtual Riker never gets tired. Sour notes for days!

[-] ashok36@lemmy.world 41 points 3 months ago

I'm just waiting for someone to use one of these for an assassination attempt in a western country. I'm honestly surprised it hasn't happened yet considering Ukraine has shown how effective they are.

[-] Weirdmusic@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

Be careful what you "wish" for.

[-] ashok36@lemmy.world 17 points 3 months ago

Not wishing at all. As soon as it happens, they'll outlaw all drones. They won't be covered under the 2nd amendment of course.

[-] Railcar8095@lemm.ee 16 points 3 months ago

They won't be covered under the 2nd amendment of COurse.

What if I strap a gun? Then it's patriotic and family friendly!

[-] Juice@midwest.social 16 points 3 months ago

I have a constitutional right to glue an Uzi to a quadcopter to protect my GMC Sierra

[-] lennybird@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

I would be absolutely astonished if as part of the no-fly zone established at these rallies that they don't have frequency jammers at the very minimum.

I feel it's only a matter of time before they put a plexiglass bunker surrounding the president at the very least.

[-] Bob_Robertson_IX@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 3 months ago

We're getting to the point where even a frequency jammer might not stop an AI piloted drone. Just teach the drone what a 'rally' looks like and where the target typically stands, and then launch it. No radio or GPS signals required.

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[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

For that rally they didn't have it. It's in the report. And yes the entire security world spit their coffee out when we found that out.

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[-] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 23 points 3 months ago

An apt analogy for the war as a whole.

[-] Nurgus@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago

The Russian military has hundreds of helicopters and, so far, has lost just a hundred or so to Ukrainian action.

Odd use of "only". Based on that sentence alone, they've lost between 10% and 90%, which sounds like a lot..

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

Not to mention, if they’re anything like their fighters or their tanks, only a small fraction was really in operational condition, the rest stored for parts.

[-] kwomp2@sh.itjust.works 21 points 3 months ago

100k drones a month?!

This is a surprisingly hight number :o. Then again saying this already feels stupid since the answer is probaby just industrial warfare or smth.

[-] Aqarius@lemmy.world 17 points 3 months ago

Considering they're basically guided munitions at this point, it makes sense.

[-] Tryptaminev@lemm.ee 15 points 3 months ago

Wasn't the last US aid package some 60 Billion dollars or so? Assuming thats for a year, that would make it about 5 Billion a month. So even if every drone would cost 5.000 Dollars, it would add up to about 10% of that budget.

And from what things in Ukraine look like, we hit a new era of warfare, with a change similiar in scope to the invention of the machinegun.

[-] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Commercial quads are 200-500 bucks. Ukraine has been making their own which significantly reduces cost. A somewhat comparable piece of equipment, the switchblade, is between 60-80k per drone and is only effective against infantry and light vehicles. The US MIC must be frothing mad right now.

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[-] JWBananas@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

Exploding drones. They're basically ordinance.

[-] Jackinopolis@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago

It reminds me of the eternal war in Civ 2 where whenever there is a build up of an army they just get targeted and nuked. Eternal War

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago

A helicopter can fly faster than 150 miles per hour at altitudes exceeding thousands of feet—too fast and too high for a two-pound drone to get a clean shot without an enormous degree of skill or luck on the part of the operator.

They spotted the 12-ton, three-crew Russian helicopter—which performs attack, transport and medical-evacuation missions—while it was still close to the ground. “Caught at the moment of takeoff,” a Russian blogger reported.

[-] CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

There are quads that can do 200+mph these days, only a matter of time before they’re cheap enough to be used to hunt down the helis.

[-] pufferfisherpowder@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Doubtful they can do that at the same altitudes as a helicopter though

[-] nonfuinoncuro@lemm.ee 6 points 3 months ago

while carrying a payload

[-] CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Yeah but they’re much more vulnerable to SAMs at altitude.

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[-] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago

Anti-air-drones. Fuck yeah.

[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 17 points 3 months ago

Bringing down a helicopter is just a matter of removing the miracle that keeps it up there. I've always been wary of them, but after seeing that one tragic Ring video of the small helicopter that just came apart in midair and a straight plummet down. Never. I mean they are great strategically, but when they fail...it's pretty complete.

[-] Shadow@lemmy.ca 24 points 3 months ago

FYI it's not a miracle keeping it up there, it's science.

And no, any failure is not "pretty complete". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation

The most common use of autorotation in helicopters is to safely land the aircraft in the event of an engine failure or tail-rotor failure. It is a common emergency procedure taught to helicopter pilots as part of their training.

[-] nulluser@programming.dev 37 points 3 months ago

They don't actually fly. They're just so ugly that the Earth repels them.

[-] theluckyone@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

I used to be scared to fly in a helicopter. Then I learned how they fly. Now I'm scared when they fly overhead.

[-] MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 5 points 3 months ago

It's just lift vs drag and rotation!

[-] Vandals_handle@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Knew a carrier based Navy search and rescue swimmer, he always said "Helicopters don't fly, they beat gravity into submission."

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[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

So you haven't seen the video?

Autorotation was...not an option.

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[-] Junkhead@slrpnk.net 10 points 3 months ago

i cant wait until actual war machine countries start producing the drone swarm en masse. (this is sarcasm)

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[-] zephyreks@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 months ago

The only winners in this war have been the Chinese drone part makers on Alibaba and the intermediaries in the Middle East/Central Asia buying those parts and reselling them to Ukraine/Russia.

[-] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 6 points 3 months ago

Weight is just a number, guys. Even the skinniest of us can score!

Not that I'm skinny, but... Nevermind.

I'd be interested in the cost difference as well.

[-] Badeendje@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Mi8 has a pricetag of 15 million, excluding crew and whatever it was carrying. If that drone was on the expensive side it was 15K. So a factor >1000

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[-] fne8w2ah@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Fuck the smelly orcs and vatniks as always.

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this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2024

481 points (97.1% liked)

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