Ukraine said it shot down two Russian fighter jets with naval drones, describing it as the “first time in history” the technology had destroyed a crewed combat aircraft.
A Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) special operations unit said on Saturday that it destroyed a Russian Su-30 fighter jet in the Black Sea on Friday by using a missile launched from a naval drone.
Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the GUR, then told The War Zone that a second Russian Su-30 was also downed by the missiles from the naval drones in the attack. The Su-30 fighter jets are estimated to cost about $50 million per unit.
The GUR shared a video of an aircraft in the sky that appears to have been shot from below, which shows an aircraft-shaped object breaking apart and falling.
The GUR said the strike was carried out by a missile launched from a Magura naval drone platform, which can carry missiles that the Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence previously said would target Russian aircraft.
Budanov told The War Zone that Ukraine used the Magura-7 version of the naval drone and that it used AIM-9 Sidewinder infrared-guided air-to-air missiles.
The Su-30 is a multirole fighter that can do both air-to-air and air-to-ground attacks. Ukraine has destroyed others in its fight back against Russia’s invasion.
Vitaly V. Kuzmin
The GUR said the jet on Friday “was engulfed in flames mid-air before crashing into the sea” after the attack, which was done in coordination with the Security Service of Ukraine and the Defence Forces of Ukraine.
It said the strike happened near Russia’s Novorossiysk port in Western Russia. Russia previously moved many of its vessels there from Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea, as Ukraine damaged so many of its vessels there with attacks.
Ukraine has also launched attacks on Novorossiysk.
Ukraine has developed a fleet of naval drones that have menaced Russia’s navy.
They, along with Ukraine’s other weaponry, have allowed Ukraine to largely neutralize Russia’s Black Sea Fleet without having any real navy of its own.
The naval drones have also caused problems for Russia in the skies. Ukraine said in December that it destroyed a Russian helicopter with a naval drone for the first time, saying a Magura was used in that attack too.
A spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to a Business Insider request for comment.
