Remember when a Ukrainian naval drone shot down a Russian helicopter?

Ukrainian naval drones have been scoring victories against Russian ships on the Black Sea since they were introduced into the war. However, back in December 2024, Ukraine's naval drones set their sights on new targets: Russian helicopters.

On December 31st, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine revealed on social media that a Magura V5 unmanned surface vehicle equipped with an anti-aircraft missile destroyed a Russian Mi-8 helicopter. It was the first time an incident like this happened in military history. 

The secretive Ukrainian special forces unit Group 13 was responsible for destroying the Russian helicopter according to the Ukrainian news outlet Militarnyi.  

Militarnyi reported that the unmanned surface vehicle used to take out the Russian Mi-8 used an R-37 air-to-air missile and occurred during an encounter on the Black Sea near Cape Tarkhankut in occupied Crimea.

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Vitaly V. Kuzmin, CC BY-SA 4.0

According to Newsweek, unofficial reports began circulating in May 2024 that Kyiv had begun equipping its Magura V5 sea drones with the Soviet-era R-37 missile.

The R-37 was developed by the Soviet Union and uses infrared homing to find its target before locking on and destroying it according to Business Insider.  

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By KGySTO, Own Work, CC BY 3.0

As an air-to-air missile, the R-37 has traditionally been carried and launched by Russian Sukhoi or MiG fighter jets but it was reengineered by Ukraine to be fired from the country's Magura V5 sea drones. 

Business Insider’s Jake Epstein noted at the time the addition of R-37 missiles on Kyiv’s Magura V5 would make the sea drones “dynamic during a mission."

On June 17th, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine officially confirmed that R-37 missiles were being fitted to Magura V5 naval drones in a post on the agency’s Telegram channel. 

The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine called the development "a serious factor of fear and risk" for Russian air assets according to a translation by Business Insider. 

"Such developments are effective — Russians are very afraid of them," the commander of Group 13 said about the addition of R-37s to Magura V5 sea drones at the time. 

Despite being fitted with R-37 missiles since at least June, the first confirmed successful downing of a Russian air asset by the missiles only occurred in December 2024. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @DIUkraine

Video footage of the successful downing was caught by the sea drones involved in the fight and shows a missile slowly rising above a group of clouds to meet its target. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @DIUkraine

Footage includes a clip of debris raining down from the sky. However, the video had not been independently verified at the time.

Photo Credit: Telegram @DIUkraine

If the report is true, it would be the first time in military history that an air asset has been shot down by a missile fired from an unmanned surface vehicle. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @DIUkraine

The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine reported that a second Russian helicopter was also hit in the encounter but “managed to reach its home airfield” according to Militarnyi. 

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Photo Credit: Telegram @DIUkraine