Both in the past and now, a war cannot be won without ground troops. Technologically, however, what is happening on the front today is very different from the battles we read about in textbooks. The full-scale war in Ukraine first brought to the fore the widespread use of drones in military operations – both on the side of Russia and on the side of Ukraine.
Drones (both reconnaissance and kamikaze) have been used since the beginning of the war. In the Kursk region, however, we are now observing something that has not happened until now, writes The Telegraph. Namely, unmanned aerial vehicles, weighing several kilograms, to shoot down an enemy helicopter in flight.
In the early hours of August 6, the Ukrainian army carried out a surprise invasion of Russia's Kursk region, bringing the war into Russian territory. The Ukrainian army is said to have conquered more land in a week than Russia managed in eight months.
When Ukrainian boots set foot in the Kursk region, powerful reconnaissance drones hovered above them. What surprised the Russians was how on August 7, somewhere over the Kursk region, a Russian Mi-28 combat helicopter was shot down by a Ukrainian drone with explosives. This was the first documented downing of a military helicopter by a drone in flight.
The fact that it was a small FPV drone – which usually weighs only a few kilograms and requires a high degree of skill from the operator – makes getting off even more impressive. But this wasn't a one-time fluke. A few days later, the Ukrainian army struck with a drone and a Russian Mi-8 transport helicopter over Kursk.
A single FPV (First-person view) drone costs only a few hundred dollars. That such a cheap drone can, with a sufficiently experienced operator, shoot down a multi-million dollar helicopter is a very ominous development for militaries around the world.
It is too early to predict the disappearance of the helicopter as a weapon of war. But that moment came closer with the first downing of a helicopter drone in flight.
The Telegraph writes that we shouldn't expect drones to shoot down fighter jets in flight any time soon. The reason is simple: they are much faster than helicopters and fly at a much higher altitude. According to the General Staff of Ukraine, since the beginning of the full-scale war, the ZSU has destroyed a total of 367 Russian combat aircraft and 328 helicopters. This data has not been verified by independent sources.