Suicide Drones to be Launched from Helicopters

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Both Russia and China have been advancing the development of suicide drone technologies, presenting serious challenges to military forces around the world.

The Russian military will be able to launch suicide drones from missile launch tubes. A modular cluster of unguided air missiles, developed by the Russian research center Zaslon for the helicopter gunship Mi-28NM, will allow helicopters to fire mini-drones and suicide drones from the missile launch tubes.

The module B8V10-UV is different from the current ones in several respects. The number of missile tubes can be adjusted for each specific task. Also, it boasts weapons programming instruments.

“Built-in instruments transmit information from the helicopter’s weapons control system to the payload, be it controlled detonation missiles, guided missiles, mini-drones or suicide drones. For instance, it can charge the drone’s battery, transmit the activation command, and turn the drone on to send it on a pre-programmed mission,” an industry source told tass.com.

Originally, the new unguided aviation missile cluster was designed for the helicopter Mi-28NM, but it will be usable on all of Russia’s combat helicopters equipped with a weapons control system, such as Mi-28, Ka-52 and attack configurations of the Mi-8.

China recently conducted a test involving a swarm of loitering munitions, also often referred to as suicide drones, deployed from a box-like array of tubular launchers on a light tactical vehicle and from helicopters, as reported by thedrive.com.