Active Conflicts & News Megathread August 22, 2025

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[u/Well-Sourced]

There have been a few examples of drones taking down helicopters in the Russia-Ukraine War and now have one in Colombia. As troop transports they have always been vulnerable when loading/unloading and with the introduction of drones to non-nation state actors all over the globe they are even more so.

🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 | BlueSky

In the department of Antioquia, 🇨🇴Colombia, local militants used an FPV drone to shoot down a police helicopter carrying government personnel in an anti-drug operation. 12 police officers were killed.

[u/Electrical-Lab-9593 → u/Well-Sourced]

the heavy lift drones carrying things like stinger / marlets and ATGM seem interesting to me, UK has one testing, making a small cheap automated attack helicopter seems like something good for a drone role, if you can get around the electronic warfare hurdles

helicopters need to have jamming helicopters with them, the turbines can power the radios, I think russia has one that does this.

[u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho → u/Electrical-Lab-9593]

I suspect the range with payload on these is poor. The best way to deal with EW might be to have these work on a fiber optic connection, like newer FPVs. You would need to check if the back blast of the missile launch yanked out the fiber.

[u/Electrical-Lab-9593 → u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho]

hydra 400 fully loaded carrying 400kg is 25km, it has NATO 14" rail can carry the brimstone which is about 50KG i think, so will go way further than 25km with just missiles on it, and shoulder launch style missile would be lighter even than that, but i don't know how hardened it is vs EW/Jamming, or it is even in production, but that was the concept.

here is a picture of it

https://www.mbda-systems.com/mbda-invests-uk-sme-maker-innovative-hydra-drone

[u/obsessed_doomer → u/Well-Sourced]

Iirc every drone to chopper kill in Ukraine has been against landed choppers. But I could be misremembering?

[u/Well-Sourced → u/obsessed_doomer]

Ukraine has a couple claims but no video proof. /u/Old-Let6252 was right there was one in Kursk. Although you are specifying kills and the helicopter in the video evidence was claimed to be just hit and was able to be repaired.

Ukrainian FPV drone hit Russian Mi-28 helicopter in 'historic' feat, source says | Kyiv Independent

A Ukrainian first-person-view (FPV) drone hit a Russian Mi-28 attack helicopter over Russia's Kursk Oblast on Aug. 6, a source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told the Kyiv Independent on Aug. 7. The drone, operated by the Special Operations Center "A" of the SBU, managed to hit the helicopter's tail rotor, the source said, calling it "a unique special operation in military history."

Footage of the FPV drone ramming into the helicopter began circulating social media on Aug. 6. A day later, the full video was published by Ukrainian activist Serhii Sternenko.

Russian military blogger Alexei Zemtsov, who runs the channel Voevoda Veshchaet, wrote on the evening of Aug. 6 that a Russian helicopter was hit and was forced to land. Zemtsov claimed that the crew survived and the aircraft was sent to repairs, but he did not specify its model.

According to Sternenko and several other observers, this is the first case of a successful hit by an FPV drone against a helicopter mid-air. "The SBU once again demonstrated a high level of professionalism, creativity, and innovation in destroying the enemy. We still have many unexpected surprises for Russia," the source said.

The Kyiv Independent could not verify all the claims.

At least one similar but unconfirmed claim appeared on July 31. Forbes wrote at the time that, according to Russian military bloggers, a Ukrainian drone successfully destroyed Russia's Mi-8 transport helicopter in the sky near occupied Donetsk. The outlet linked to a photo of what it presented as the burning Mi-8 wreckage but provided no visual evidence of the aircraft being hit by the drone.

Did A Ukrainian Drone Just Shoot Down A $15 Million 12-Ton Russian Helicopter? | SimpleFlying | August 2024

On Wednesday, Forbes reported a small Ukrainian FPV quadcopter shot down a Russian helicopter seemingly for the first time. As of the time of writing (August 1), there are no videos of the shootdown circulating online, but there are images of the Russian Mil Mi-8 transport helicopter burning in Donetsk in occupied Ukraine. The videos apparently came from Russian sources.

However, according to the Voevoda vesicant Russian military Telegram channel, the drone caught the helicopter at its critical moment of weakness—at the moment of takeoff (a Ukrainian Telegram channel later reinforced this). Russian Mi-8s are used for attack, transport, and medevac missions.

Ukraine Destroys $16M Russian 'Alligator' Helicopter in Drone Strike | NewsWeek | May 2025

Ukraine's Special Operations Forces said it had successfully targeted the Russian Ka-52 "Alligator" helicopter, worth an estimated $16 million, over Ukrainian territory, posting video of what it said showed the strike. A video posted on social media appears to show the drone targeting the helicopter as it is on combat patrol over Ukrainian territory. No date or specific location was given for the operation.

They do have video evidence of taking down a helicopter with a missile from a sea drone.

Ukraine says it shot down Russian helicopter using a naval drone | AP News | December 2024

[u/Old-Let6252 → u/obsessed_doomer]

I recall there being a video or two in the initial stages of the Kursk offensive of Russian helos getting hit in flight by drones