485
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] pufferfisherpowder@lemmy.world 7 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.

[-] CanadaPlus 1 points 3 months ago

Doesn't it get easier to fly fast high up? It does for planes.

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

It does, but it gets progressivelly harder as it goes up to maintain enough vertical airflow for a rotary-wing craft to stay up because the air becomes thinner.

The going faster for fixed wing craft compensates for the air being thinner because the Bernouli Effect (the sustentation effect from the wings) gets stronger the faster the airflow over the wings is, but the equivalent of that for a rotary wing craft is for the paddles themselves to rotate faster and the craft itself going faster doesn't help (it makes air over some paddles go faster but also makes the air over the paddles going in the opposite direction go slower).

Quadcopters are rotary-wing craft, so can't really improve the altitude they can reach by going faster.

[-] CanadaPlus 2 points 3 months ago

Ah. So it's less that they're slow at altitude, and more that they may not be able to reach it in the first place.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

It does for space craft too. At least thats what No Mans Sky has taught me! Gotta turn on the thrusters!!!

this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2024
485 points (96.9% liked)

World News

38965 readers
2223 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS