Video shared by Ukraine’s air force late on Sunday captured the explosion midair of a Russian Shahed 136 drone after it was shot by an F-16.
The footage offered a rare, clear glimpse of the air-to-air engagements now commonplace across Ukrainian airspace. On the same day, a separate Russian drone attack killed a mother and her young child.
Why It Matters
The Iran-built unmanned aerial vehicle, also known as the Geran-2, is Russia’s most cost-effective weapon in its war of attrition. With a production cost of about $35,000 per unit, the Shahed one-way attack drone allows Russia to launch saturation strikes deep into Ukrainian territory from afar while sparing its dwindling manpower.
For Ukraine, Shahed drones are costly to intercept with missiles and increase the risks for army and air force pilots attempting to intercept them at closer distances. The drones have terrorized Ukraine’s civilian population for over three years.
What To Know
The video shared by Ukraine’s air force command was filmed from ground level and show a single Shahed drone flying overhead. The loud hum of its propeller is heard before the UAV comes into view.
The drone appears to cause panic among the onlookers, but it explodes in the sky seconds later as the Ukrainian F-16 makes a successful intercept. The footage captures the sound of the jet’s M61A1 Vulcan autocannon and the roar of its engine as it flies away.
“Well done!” a man shouts in Ukrainian, as debris from the drone falls to the ground. It is not the first reported Shahed shootdown by an F-16, but it is among the clearest caught on camera.
Ukraine’s air force said on Monday that Russia launched 11 ballistic missiles and 149 drones against Ukrainian cities overnight. It said 116 drones were neutralized and an unspecified number of missiles were intercepted. About 90 of the drones were of the Shahed type, it added.
Separately, Ukrainian officials said Russian drone attacks killed at least four people overnight, including a mother and her 10-year-old son in the northeastern Kharkiv region. Tens of thousands were left without power.
The specialist Air and Space Forces magazine said last fall that Ukraine’s F-16s were now flying about 80 percent of its combat sorties against Russia. Kyiv has lost four F-16s, and it may be some time before the 80 or so jets donated by its Western backers are put into service.
Getting Creative
The high costs associated with intercepting Russia’s daily Shahed incursions mean Ukraine has had to get creative. The attack drones are being shot down by machine guns, shoulder-fired rockets, helicopters and even other drones.
But Russia is innovating too. Recent sightings of Shahed UAVs have shown the drones carrying backward-facing R-60 air-to-air missiles. The adaptation is believed to be aimed at shooting down Ukrainian army helicopters used for air defense, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington think tank.
“Russian forces were likely first using the drones with forward-facing R-60 missiles specifically to search for and then strike Ukrainian aircraft. Russian forces now appear to be using backward-facing missiles in order to defend the drone if it encounters a Ukrainian aircraft, but then allow the drone to threaten Ukrainian aircraft involved in air defense operations and to continue toward its original target,” ISW said.
