Some Russian Drones Are Carrying Air-To-Air Missiles Now. How Much Should Ukraine's F-16 Pilots Worry?
At present, not much.
Around once a week, the Russian air force launches a combined missile and drone barrage at Ukrainian cities and powerplants. Typically, a barrage mixes a few dozen cruise and ballistic missiles with hundreds of Shahed attack drones.
The missiles are expensive at millions of dollars apiece. The drones are cheap: just $50,000. Given the density of Ukrainian air defenses—radio jamming, ground-based guns and missiles and jet fighters on combat air patrols—normally just 10% of the munitions in a given raid strike their targets.
Clearly the Russians are keen to increase that percentage, by adding aerial self-protection to the barrages. Defensive armament won’t prevent jamming or deflect cannon rounds fired from the ground, but it might ward off roving Lockheed Martin F-16s firing AIM-9 missiles from a few miles away.
It’s impractical to arm a ballistic missile or cruise missile given—respectively—their high speed and aerodynamic constraints, but a 440-pound Shahed with its wide wing is just the thing.
It’s for this reason, back in December, the Russians armed at least one Shahed with an R-60 infrared-guided air-to-air missile. Continuing the experiment, they’ve now armed a Shahed with a Verba infrared-guided surface-to-air missile. (See video at top.)
