Here, Ukrainian fighters use a surface-to-air missile produced in Britain to down a sophisticated Russian helicopter worth £12 million.
In order to strike the adjacent Russian Kamov KA-52 helicopter, soldiers from the 95th Air Assault Brigade of Ukraine, located in Zhytomyr, in the country’s northwest, employed a Martlet missile, also known as the Starstreak in the UK.
Because of its battlefield management system, which enables it to share data with other aircraft to coordinate assault activities, the Russian single-seat attack helicopter is known as the “Black Shark” and has been dubbed Russia’s “deadliest helicopter.”
Despite costing £12 million, it was unable to detect the Ukrainian missile in time because the KA-52 looked to have been hit less than 30 seconds after the Martlet was fired.
Despite the fact that the chopper is not damaged in the video, Ukrainian defense sources assert that it was shot down.
The martlet, a legendary English bird that never roosts, inspired Thales Air Defence to create the lightweight surface-to-air missile for the UK.
It is “ideal for asymmetric littoral operations” since it can be launched from a number of air, land, and sea platforms at a variety of targets with extremely high precision, reducing collateral damage.
In defiance of Vladimir Putin’s warnings not to provide Kyiv with the cutting-edge weapons, Britain committed earlier this month to join the US in deploying long-range missile systems to Ukraine to aid in defending against the Russian incursion.
Britain will provide M270 launchers, which can shoot precisely guided rockets up to 50 miles, more than doubling the range of current artillery, according to Defense Secretary Ben Wallace. Three of the cars are anticipated to be sent from the UK at first.
It follows the delivery of four M142 HIMARS launchers, which are lighter and easier to maneuver than M270 launchers, to Kyiv’s soldiers by Joe Biden.
After a Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s central city of Kremenchuk on Monday, it is believed that many civilians were killed or injured in a busy shopping center there. This attack on the sophisticated Russian helicopter follows that incident.
According to Ukraine’s air force headquarters, two long-range X-22 missiles fired from Tu-22M3 bombers flying out of Shaykovka airfield in the Kaluga area of Russia caused at least 10 fatalities and more than 40 injuries.
The number of casualties is “unimaginable,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a Telegram post, citing claims that more than 1,000 citizens were inside at the time of the strike.
Images from the site showed massive black smoke plumes rising from a burning shopping mall as rescue workers rushed to the area and terrified onlookers watched.
The target, according to Zelensky, posed “no threat to the Russian army” and had “no strategic value.” The ‘people’s attempts to live a normal life, which make the occupiers so upset,’ he claimed, are being sabotaged by Russia.
On the day Zelensky attended the G7 conference to ask G7 leaders to provide missile defense systems, Boris Johnson spoke out against Vladimir Putin’s “cruelty and barbarism,” saying it would bolster allies’ resolve to oppose Putin.
The attack, according to Mr. Johnson, “has once again demonstrated the depths of depravity and savagery to which the Russian commander would stoop.”