Too close for missiles, too close for guns, going to whatever isn't
strapped down and can be thrown...
- Bob Mann
On 8/26/2025 9:26 AM, ERIC Smith via Mifnet wrote:
Seems to me it wouldn't take much engineering to strap a .50 cal on
the underside of that mother and give it some stand-off ability. Even
a 7.62 would do. The ghost of Erich Hartmann must be itching for a
rematch.
When I read about the shotgun it reminded me of a a mission report on
the wall of the Douglas Bader pub in Martlesham Heath. "I opened fire
at 50 yards and ceased fire 50 feet." So we're back to that I guess.
Eric
On 08/26/2025 5:12 AM EDT srbrown via Mifnet
<mifnet@lists.mifnet.com> wrote:
I'll ride shotgun for you, Eric, as EU laws make me too old to fly
commercially.
Unless you can do it with a CPL and Class 2 medical.
Simon
-------- Original message --------
From: ERIC Smith via Mifnet <mifnet@lists.mifnet.com>
Date: 25/08/2025 19:30 (GMT+00:00)
To: "<mifnet@lists.mifnet.com>" <mifnet@lists.mifnet.com>
Cc: ERIC Smith <j...@comcast.net>
Subject: [Mifnet đź›° 73796] Retirement Job
It isn't unusual for airline pilots to retire then find another
flying job for a time. Many end up at Netjets but few of them last
more than a year there.
Up until now I haven't been interested but something just caught my eye.
Eric
https://www.wsj.com/world/ukraine-russia-drone-hunting-e2fea5fc?mod=hp_trendingnow_article_pos4
Hunting Russian Drones in a Prop Plane With Shotguns and Rifles
Ukrainian defenders use an array of unusual methods to fend off
attacks while preserving stockpiles of more advanced tools
This month, a beaten-up, Soviet-era propeller-driven plane taxied to
a halt on a rural runway and two of Ukraine’s top air aces clambered
out, one carrying a rifle. The pair, clad in olive-drab flight suits,
are part of a low-tech solution to the high-tech problem of Russian
drones
<https://www.wsj.com/world/russia-iran-drone-factory-ukraine-aea9bf5b?mod=article_inline>.
The 56-year-old pilot, who learned to fly as a hobby before the war,
and the gunner, 38, a former auto mechanic who had never been in a
plane before the invasion, are part of a squadron dedicated to
knocking down the unmanned Russian attack and reconnaissance aircraft
<https://www.wsj.com/world/ukraine-russia-drone-war-adef7e49?mod=article_inline>
that are the bane of ground troops and civilians.
In the past year, these two unlikely air warriors have flown around
300 combat missions as part of the 11th Army Aviation Brigade and
downed almost half the unit’s total of 120 drones eliminated,
according to its deputy commander, Col. Mykola Lykhatskiy.
Ukraine has some of the West’s most advanced air defenses
<https://www.wsj.com/business/this-new-missile-defense-system-is-challenging-the-patriot-5068e625?mod=article_inline>,
including the Patriot missile system. It also has F-16 jets that it
sometimes uses to down missiles and drones. But it has also developed
a series of lower-cost tactics to counter the threat from the skies,
ranging from nets to signal jamming
<https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/ukraine-russia-drones-fiber-optic-cable-6c96a9f1?mod=article_inline>.
Soldiers and volunteers also man pickup truck-mounted heavy machine
guns to try to take out explosive-laden Shahed drones. Others use
vintage Soviet missiles fired from launchers made out of reused
shipping containers.
Then there are the men and flying machines of the 11th. When a drone
appears on military radar screens, crews scramble to their two-seater
Yak-52 trainers, with a sliding glass canopy reminiscent of World War
II fighters. Usually, they are airborne within 15 minutes.
Their squadron has brought military aviation back to its very
beginnings in World War I, engaging the enemy at close range with a
marksman leaning out of his cockpit with a gun.
The Yak-52 is so basic that it has no radar of its own and has to fly
in the daytime, when the crew is guided by radio before visual
contact. Their cockpit gets so cold in the winter they need thick
jackets, gloves and old-school, fur-lined flying helmets.
Pilots sit near their planes waiting for the command to scramble.
Like World War II pilots, they stencil drones they have shot down
onto the side of their plane, which was later destroyed in a Russian
missile attack on their air base. They now have another Yak.
Their main targets are Orlan and Zala reconnaissance drones, and
Shahed explosive drones. The propeller-driven Orlan and Zala look
like a miniature plane and kite, respectively, while the distinctive
triangular shape of the Shahed has become one of the most
recognizable sights of this war. The propeller-powered models of
these drones fly at speeds of up to 115 miles an hour, making them
easy to chase for the Yak, which can fly at over 180 miles an hour.
The successes of these planes and helicopters account for around 10%
to 12% of the drones intercepted by Ukraine on a typical day, said
Lykhatskiy.
Last month, around 11% of all long-range drones launched by Russia
got through Ukraine’s air defenses, according to data analyzed by the
Center for Information Resilience, a U.K.-based open-source
investigations organization.
The Ukrainian prop planes will typically fly within 200 to 300 feet
of the drone before the gunner opens the canopy, leans out and fires.
“There is such great new technology now, yet I am still hanging out
of the cockpit shooting at drones with a shotgun,” said the auto
mechanic-turned gunner. He likened the experience to shooting a gun
while riding a horse. The gunner has tried a number of weapons and
currently favors a German Haenel MK55 automatic rifle.
Sometimes pilots get so close they can use their plane’s wings to
tilt the drone’s wings and send it off course, said Lykhatskiy.
British pilots used that tactic in World War II against Germany’s
V-1, widely considered the world’s first missile.
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