According to Forbes, the slow air tactics of World War I have returned to the battlefield. Back then, propeller planes did not have frontal machine guns. Therefore, pilots, and even more often co-pilots, aimed at enemy planes with pistols or rifles.
More than a century later, small arms have resumed firing from the back seats of propeller-driven aircraft. Last week, a gunner in a 1970s-style Yak-52 trainer belonging to the Ukrainian Volunteer Flying Club engaged in a battle with a Russian Orlan drone over southern Ukraine, shooting down the $100,000 drone.
“This is not the first time that World War I tactics and technologies have been recreated on the Ukrainian front. Trench warfare is back. Also “turtle tanks” and “Maxim” machine guns. But the air battle “shooter vs. drone” may be the most dramatic example of modern warfare taking place under the brutal conditions of the conflict in Ukraine,” the publication said.
The attack was filmed from the ground and from the air. The video shows the 1.5-tonne aircraft circling the Orlan drone, gunshots ring out and the damaged drone automatically deploys its parachute.
Light motorized aircraft with gunners are the obvious choice to combat slow drones, saving a lot of money. A machine gun on the back of a helicopter or airplane also saves valuable air defense missiles.
“Spending many thousands (if not millions) of dollars on a single missile to destroy an inexpensive drone is cost-effective,” wrote Paul Maxwell, deputy director of the Army Cyber Institute at the US Military Academy in New York.
It is especially important for the Ukrainians to preserve the best anti-aircraft ammunition, since the war is already in its third year. Ukraine still gets most of its missiles from its foreign allies, and because of a six-month hiatus when the US cut off supplies, missile stocks are currently extremely low.
But cheap anti-drone tactics aren’t necessarily simple. Let’s remember one of the first air battles over the European front line during the First World War.
“We encountered a German plane flying at about the same altitude as us and at the same speed, so we couldn’t get closer than 600 meters,” recalled Royal Air Corps pilot Archibald James.
“I aimed my service rifle at 600 meters and fired six shots. It was pathetic. Obviously I missed the mark. There was no doubt that I had gone too far. At the time, we had no idea how close we needed to shoot to have any effect at all,” James recalled.
In other words, to shoot a drone from the back of the plane, the pilot has to get very close and the shooter has to be extremely accurate.
Prepared by Unian inf.
