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

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.

  • Bob Robertson IX @discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    61·
    4 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.

    • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      All of the public events now have some heavy anti drone measures set up. Like the Olympics currently.

      I’m not sure how this works as they often rely on drones for filming though. So it’s not jamming.

    • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      I was reading a company in Ukraine has completed a functioning drone that does just this. Basically permits it to fire-and-forget as it has basic optimal image recognition built into a chip. Crazy.

      Alternatively if you knew the target’s static location, you could bypass GPS and controller jamming by utilizing good 'ol fashioned orienteering principles with an accelerometer, compass, and provided coordinates.