Ukraine hits Russian Mi-8 during raid on supply lines in Luhansk

Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade destroyed a Russian Mi-8 military helicopter in the Luhansk region with two Hornet one-way attack drones after waiting for it to land, the brigade said on social media on Oct. 30.

A drone crew from the SKYFOM strike-wing platoon of the brigade’s unmanned systems battalion spotted the helicopter during a raid on Russian supply lines and launched a Hornet to intercept it in the air. The Russian crew changed course after noticing the drone, but the helicopter was faster than the Hornet and pulled away, the brigade said. The brigade did not say where in the Luhansk region the strike took place or when.

“The helicopter’s cruising speed exceeded the speed of the strike drones, but as soon as the Russian aircraft landed, the fighters struck it in the area of the fuel tanks. The second Hornet successfully finished off the target,” the Third Assault Brigade said.

The brigade said the helicopter burned out completely. Russia uses the twin-engine Mi-8 as the workhorse of its military helicopter fleet, flying troops and cargo, evacuating wounded and providing fire support. Russia has not commented on the loss.

The Hornet is a fixed-wing one-way attack drone built by Perennial Autonomy, a U.S.-based company that multiple published reports have linked to a network of firms connected to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Ukrainian units use it to hit Russian supply routes deep behind the front, and Ukraine’s 1st Azov Corps has flown it more than 50 km (31 miles) from the front line over occupied Donetsk. In May, Ukraine tested launching a Hornet from an aerostat at about 8 km altitude.

Ukrainian drone units have increasingly gone after Russian helicopters, usually catching them on the ground or while hovering, since most strike drones cannot match a helicopter’s speed in level flight. In February, Ukrainian strike drones destroyed a Ka-52 attack helicopter and a Mi-8 at a forward airfield in Russia’s Oryol region. In September, a single drone destroyed a Mi-8AMTSh at a helipad near Anapa, Russian sources reported. In July, the Unmanned Systems Forces’ Rarog unit said it brought down a Mi-28 attack helicopter, and in April a joint team struck a Mi-28 and a Mi-8 together at a Russian airstrip in the Voronezh region more than 150 km (93 miles) from the front line.