Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
That’s a highly effective way to keep costs down!
Russia is launching thousands of drones at Ukraine on a massive scale, often deploying hundreds of drones at the same time.
The strategy appears designed to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses, increasing the chances of some drones reaching their targets without being shot down.
Ukraine has become increasingly effective at countering Russian drone assaults, but doing so costs money, as the drones and ammunition used to intercept Russian drones are not free.
One way to reduce costs would, of course, be to destroy two Russian drones with a single strike—though this is probably not a viable strategy on a larger scale.
However, a Ukrainian soldier managed to do exactly that.
Wild double strike
The serviceman, known by the callsign Hulk, managed a nearly impossible trick shot during a recent mission.
According to dramatic video footage shared by the country’s Presidential Brigade, the skilled soldier knocked out two incoming enemy aircraft using only a single defensive drone.
The targets were heavy, explosive-laden Russian Shahed drones advancing in groups at different altitudes. Hulk deployed a swift interceptor drone into the path of the formation to disrupt the attack.
The defensive drone rammed the upper target and immediately set it on fire. As the burning wreckage tumbled through the air, it smashed directly into a second enemy drone flying beneath it. Both deadly weapons crashed to the ground.
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Secrets of STING
The weapon behind this spectacular double kill is a compact quadcopter named STING. A Ukrainian development team called Wild Wasps designed the inexpensive, mass-producible machine specifically to destroy loitering munitions without wasting expensive missiles.
This nimble quadcopter features a raised central compartment that safely houses both a warhead and an onboard camera. It can launch from almost any flat surface without requiring a cumbersome launch catapult. Crews need only 15 minutes of preparation to get it airborne.
Once in the air, the machine can pursue targets up to 25 kilometers away. Operators can guide it using standard remote-control systems, but the device performs best when linked to a custom digital video system that tracks targets in real time.
Sky-high scores
The engineering team spent more than a year and hundreds of thousands of dollars perfecting the design before starting mass production. That investment is already paying significant dividends on the front line.
During its first four months of widespread deployment, Ukrainian soldiers used the new system to destroy more than 1,000 Russian drones, including Shahed and Gerbera models. Official data shows that nearly half of those interceptions occurred in a single month.
This latest dramatic double victory is part of a growing trend of defensive achievements. Previously, another drone operator using the callsign Miguel made history by shooting down 24 incoming Shahed drones during a single chaotic nighttime assault.
