RuAviation

In several regions of Russia there are units of the Russian Air Force, equipped with modifications of Mi-28 helicopters, designed to destroy Ukrainian drones targeting civilian infrastructure and residential complexes of Russian cities. The crews have undergone special training in intercepting UAVs, and they already have several downed attack drones on their account, sources in the military department told Izvestia.

In late August, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that an aerodrome was being set up in Orel to intercept Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow. “In Orel, they have not yet had time to finish the arrangement of an aerodrome for interceptors, as one of the helicopters has already shot down a drone that was flying towards Moscow,” Sergei Sobyanin said.

According to him, the Russian Ministry of Defence has asked the Moscow authorities to rearrange the air defence positions. The Mayor of Moscow also said that at the request of the Ministry of Defence new air defence facilities are created within a day. Such work has been underway for several weeks.

Mi-28N attack helicopter is designed to search and destroy tanks, armoured and unarmoured vehicles, as well as enemy infantry and low-speed air targets. The helicopter forms the basis of the Russian army aviation fleet. It is capable of carrying more than one and a half tonnes of armament. According to the results of combat experience, the helicopter was modernised into a version of the Mi-28NM. In the future, this machine will be the most powerful attack helicopter of our army.

To defeat drones and barrage munitions Mi-28 can use a fixed mobile cannon installation NPPU-28, included in the control loop weapons and working synchronously with the sighting device. The effectiveness of firing at such targets is ensured at ranges of up to 2500 metres. The NPPU-28 provides horizontal guidance up to 110° to the right and left, as well as vertical guidance up to 13° up and 40° down. The ammunition package includes 250 armour-piercing and fragmentation projectiles.

The main armament “air-to-air” helicopters Mi-28 all modifications is the system Strelets – a set of equipment and launch modules for the integration of anti-aircraft guided missiles Igla or Igla-S. With the help of such devices, the helicopter is able to detect and attack air targets on catch-up and counter courses.

Military experts believe that the emergence of helicopters designed to search for and defeat slow-moving drones is an expected thing. It is not difficult for a professional military pilot to gain the skill and experience to shoot down drones with cannon armament or air-to-air missiles with heat-seeking homing heads.

“Their speed is low, up to 200 kilometres per hour. It is not difficult for a pilot to learn how to shoot them down. The only thing is that the target is small, if the drone is small, the main thing is to hit. But this is not a target that flies at supersonic speed, so it is quite easy to shoot it down,” Igor Malikov, honoured test pilot, Hero of Russia, shared his opinion with Izvestia.