Dramatic mid-air battle footage captures the moment a Ukrainian helicopter gunner blasts a Russian drone out of the sky with an aircraft-mounted minigun.
The first-person view clip shows a soldier aiming a US-made M134 minigun - which can fire ammunition at a rate of up 6,000 round per minute - at the $20,000 drone, before shooting it down in a hail of bullets.
The comparatively cheap Geran-2 ‘kamikaze’ drone, a Russian-produced clone of the Iranian-made Shahed 136, and similar models have been extensively used by Russia to strike Ukrainian targets, with drone attacks increasing 300% from last year’s figures, according to Centre for Strategic and International Studies data.
Cheaply produced minigun rounds are a cost-effective method of downing drones versus the use of surface-to-air missiles.