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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Moment Ukraine takes out Russian fighter jet with sea drone in world first |
| 2025-05-06 |
| [Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Ukrainian marine drone carrying air-to-air missiles shot down a Russian fighter jet last week in what was described by Ukraine's Defence Intelligence Chief as a 'historic moment'. A member of Ukraine's special forces was guiding the Magura V7 sea vehicle in Black Sea waters close to the Russian port town of Novorossiysk on May 2 when it registered a Russian aircraft streaking overhead. Stunning heads-up display footage released by Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency showed the moment the drone unleashed a US-supplied AIM-9 sidewinder infrared guided missile and scored a direct hit on the jet - a Su-30SM multirole fighter. It is believed to be the first time in history that a seaborne military drone has scored a kill on a fixed-wing fighter aircraft. The hitherto unrealised feat was repeated minutes later when a second Magura drone scored a kill on another Su-30. The Magura V7 marine drone is based on the same platform as the Magura V5, which has been used to great effect by Ukraine's armed forces to terrorise Russia's Black Sea naval fleet, but has been modified for air defence missions. Each drone is reported to cost just over £200,000 - a paltry sum in comparison to the cost per unit of the advanced supermanoeuvrable Su-30SM, which comes in at roughly £37 million. The crew of the first Su-30SM managed to eject and were plucked from the murky waters of the Black Sea by a Russian civilian ship, according to Budanov and Russian military bloggers. The crew of the second jet were not so lucky and went down with their plane, Ukrainian officials said. AIM-9 Sidewinder-Armed Ukrainian Drone Boat: What We Know [TWZ] The legacy AIM-9 is a highly-proven and available weapon that has a ship-launched past, but doing so from Ukraine's drone boats presents interesting challenges. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 What's sad is the Magura's don't have an all aspect attack setup, it can only engage targets in front of it's missiles. Has to turn to engage targets to the side. So the Su-30's had to basically do is go "shoot me in the back". |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2025-05-06 14:41 |