Ukrainian forces continue to write military history with the first combat elimination of an air target using a naval drone on December 31, 2024. The video released by the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine allows us to pinpoint some of the crucial details of this episode that took place, apparently, near the coast of the russian-occupied Crimea.
In the footage, a pair of russian Mi-8 helicopters and a fighter jet try to intercept Ukrainian unmanned surface vehicles but this is exactly when the hunter becomes prey. Several Magura V5 drones were equipped with R-73 anti-air missiles, fired at russian rotorcraft in this episode.
Read more: The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine Strikes Historic Blow in the Black Sea, the Magura V5 Missile-Armed Drone Engages Aerial Targets (Video)
Missiles took one helicopter down, the drone's onboard cameras filmed the moment the helicopter falls hit by a missile. The second chopper was damaged, as noted by the intelligence service, but was able to fly back to the airfield. Later, an intercepted radio conversation between russian pilots was released, too.
That said, there is obviously painstaking work behind this achievement made real by the drone operators from secret Group 13 and, no less importantly, all the personnel who planned, organized, and helped to execute this mission in close cooperation; and, of course, thanks to the efforts by the non-disclosed developers of this unmanned system and the creators of the weapon.
Important to note, the Magura V5 used not any simple R-73 missile but apparently its modernized variant called the R-73 SeeDragon. There is no information about this modification, based on what we could see, some changes were made to the design of the Soviet air-to-air missile, produced in Ukraine. In most likelihood, it was adapted to a rather aggressive marine environment to ensure reliable operation when it matters.
Moreover, as clearly evidenced by the footage, the R-73 SeeDragon missile successfully hit the target even though the enemy Mi-8 had used flares. Therefore, this missile might have also got a new homing head with better filtering of decoys.
Additionally, the missile had to be integrated with the drone's targeting system. Elements of its operation are also reflected in the video: pay attention to the detail that the sight uses its own thermal imager, and the fire control system signals the lock on target. Combining the missile with the sighting system is not an easy task.
At the same time, the operator had to hold the target until it was captured by the missile's infrared homing head in a fairly narrow field of view. Doing this with a land-based system is already hard enough but at sea, the difficulty is multiplied by the natural boat rocking and the need to perform the task on the move.
In retrospect, the fact that it's been quite a while since the first reports about the Magura V5 being armed with R-73 missiles in May 2024 — up to today's first successful downing — perhaps indicates that all this time was spent upgrading the fire control system and creating a special variant of the missile. Still, the silver lining is that the kill count of russian aircraft destroyed by Ukrainian air defense naval drones has been opened.
Read more: First Drone is the "Hooligan": Insights on Magura V5 Tactics and Specifications From Commander 13th
