A group of Ukrainian volunteers has turned an old Russian-built skydiving plane into a gunship that has shot down hundreds of Iranian-made kamikaze drones deployed by Russia in the ongoing war between the two countries. The 50-year-old An-28, a twin engine turboprop designed as a utility transport, has been equipped with an M134 Minigun Gatling-style machine gun that fires 7.62 mm rounds at up to 6,000 a minute. The average drone kill goes through about $500 worth of ammo while taking out a drone worth tens of thousands of dollars.
The Shahed drones have been one of the Russians’ most effective weapons. The drones, which are packed with high explosive, have destroyed dozens of high-value infrastructure targets. None of the pilots or gunners are in the Ukrainian military. They are civilian volunteers who developed and train with their own tactics and ops. They are, however, under the control of the military and they get their orders from military units.
Oof. $500 of ammo means at least 500+ rounds downrange, most of which will fall to earth at significant velocity. Effective but dangerous; I guess that tradeoff is one UKR makes willingly.
Better than allowing the drone to continue to its target. Tradeoffs are made in wartime.
The video mentioned that some drones are “escorted” until in an area where they can shoot.
Watch the end of the video – drones are shot down only over unpopulated areas. It’s “the law” for them.
I love this! Anything that shows Ukraine is still fighting, however they can, is good news.
I really admire the Ukrainian ingenuity; an “airborne technical” for a specific job. Excellent!!
I love that other nations, including Germany, are turning to Ukraine for drone expertise.
I don’t mean for even a moment to trivialize the hardships that Ukranians have been enduring for so long. But I have to be honest – flying around, shooting down drones with a mini Gatling gun sounds like a ton of fun. If I was over there, I would volunteer in a minute.
I also would volunteer, and especially because it is helpful.
Can a less lethal round be shot to cause less harm to people and cattle below?
I was actually wondering the same thing. Those miniguns are pretty devastating if you’re on the recieving end.
Foreign legion volunteers in Ukraine are cannon fodder, they don’t get the cool safe jobs
It appeared to me that the video was queued somewhere in the middle. I took the time to watch the whole thing and was quite impressed. They hold fire when over populated areas, waiting for open ground below before shooting. Best to get the drones as early after crossing the border as possible.
The URL for the entire video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0b6ECKU_Os
The now retired and short lived USAF C145A was an updated version of the AN-28. The C145B was a proposed ground attack version.
In the Cold War, they copied our designs – now we use theirs? Nothing against Russian aerospace, Gagarin beat Shepard into space, from a developing country with an industrial base half the size of the USA
Antonov is Ukrainian but point taken. The westernized aircraft is a very capable STOL performer. The C-145As were produced by PZL in Poland and the USAF did not want them. In was an offset deal. All that aside, PZL is owned by Sikorsky which is owned by Lockheed. Interesting times we live in
None of this would happen if the US had allowed Russia to join NATO when Putin asked, or had not insisted on extending NATO to Russia’s doorstep, or created the revolution to overthrow Ukraine’s elected leader, but the New York Times seems uninterested in all that.
Clinton told Putin he had no problem with Russia joining NATO. However, Putin was unwilling to go through the process required of ALL countries to join NATO. He wanted to jump to the head of the line and be accepted, because “Russia was more important than the other countries wanting to join”. It’s Putin’s own fault Russia isn’t in NATO.
Secondly, NATO has never invaded other countries, whereas Russia has a long history of taking over other countries, either by force or by political means. So it’s BS that Russia is “afraid” of NATO invading Russia – nice propaganda try though. You are delusional if you think “none of this would have happened”.
This might be off your topic, but at least it’s about aviation:
https://oldrhinebeck.org/