Ukraine's An-28 Gunship Shot Down 2% Of Russia's Shahed Drones For The Cost Of One Air-To-Air Missile

The gun-armed light transport is one of the most efficient drone-killers

Sometime late last year, some enterprising Ukrainian volunteers mounted a 7.62-millimeter minigun to the port fuselage hatch of an Antonov An-28 light turboprop transport—and went hunting for Russian Shahed attack drones.

By mid-October, the crew reported shooting down around 70 Shaheds. Four months later, French media followed up—and the same crew claimed they’d racked up 150 total kills.

That’s 80 Shaheds in 12 major air raids between mid-October and early February. In other words, between six and seven Shaheds per raid. Given that an An-28 costs a few thousand dollars per flight hour and minigun ammunition is also cheap, the civilian-operated transport probably ranks among the most efficient Shahed-killers.

It’s certainly more efficient than the Lockheed Martin F-16s that the Ukrainian air force routinely sorties to intercept Shaheds. An F-16 costs at least $20,000 per flight hour. Its AIM-9 missiles cost hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece.