Nighttime with Ukraine’s drone hunting teams
Patriot missiles are too expensive to be fired at every target. So for Iranian-made Shahed drones, mobile teams are sent out with World War II technology – machine guns, spotlights… and their ears.
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Sometimes, when he walks down the street and finds himself in complete silence, soldier Kostiantyn Chernyshov starts to hear a Shahed drone humming nearby.
It’s Kostiantyn’s job to be alert.
While most Ukrainians shelter inside during Russian attacks, he is part of a unit who head towards the drones. In a war with satellites, drones and lasers, his tools would be at home in World War II: he tries to shoot them down with just a machine gun.
"You only have a few seconds to shoot down the drone or damage it as much as possible," he explained.
Kostiantyn has served in the Ukrainian army on the Mobile Air Defense Fire Team’s 756th Regiment of the State Special Transport Service for over two years, shooting down Russian Shahed drones.
Mobile Air Defense Fire Teams were created even before the full-scale invasion, and from the first days of the ‘great war’ started to implement their life-saving skills. They don’t use high-tech defense air systems like the PATRIOT or Iris-T. Instead, they use a simple military vehicle, equipped with a machine gun to bring the Russian drones down.
Kostiantyn's Mobile Air Defense Fire Team, which helps defend Kyiv, consists of four people.
"I am a gunner –- I load the machine gun and wait for the command to open fire. I also watch the sky," Kostiantyn said.
There are three others. One, the team leader, is responsible for the thermal camera, binoculars and laser pointer. He gives the order to fire. There is a driver, who brings the team to their designated secret locations, and lights up the sky using a spotlight. There is also an assistant gunner who helps Kostiantyn with ammunition, and also guards the group.
Kostiantyn and his Mobile Air Defense Fire Team work virtually seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and can be called to shift at any time. As soon as the order comes that they have to leave, they have only a few minutes to get ready.
"We don't know whether it's a training exercise or a combat mission. We treat each of them as a combat mission," the soldier said.
From the full-scale invasion to the end of 2023, Russia launched almost 4,000 drones into Ukraine, most of which have been shot down by Ukraine’s army. But Ukraine lacks enough air defense missiles to destroy all the enemy's equipment.
After all, shooting down missiles using modern technology is expensive. A Russian kamikaze drone, such as the Iranian-produced Shahed 136, is very cheap, costing between $20,000 and $50,000. That is the price of a new car in Ukraine. Meanwhile, PATRIOT interceptors used to shoot down the drones are estimated to cost about $4 million per missile.
So to maximize Ukraine’s defense coverage, the mobile teams have become a vital, low-tech, low-cost part of the war effort.
Kostiantyn, 26, has been in the military since the start of the war. He served in the army at the border guard service just before the full-scale invasion. On March 3rd, 2022 he came to the UAF as a volunteer.
"I was told that I would be a gunner, since I already had experience with weapons," Kostiantyn said.
He is from the Dnipro region, where he started his military career after the full scale invasion. He didn't have time to train for more than two or three days because the war was already in full swing.
Later his command relocated him to Chernihiv and now he defends Ukraine in the Kyiv region.
His job is hard work. Kostiantyn's longest shift lasted up to nine hours, the shortest half an hour. Lately, the Russians have been launching drones mostly at night, so the Mobile Air Defense Fire Teams are working more often in the darkness.
"We are given a certain amount of time during the day to prepare for night work. During the day we can sleep an extra 4 hours, and sometimes an extra hour of sleep gives us a lot. The body has already adapted," Kostiantyn said.
The first thing the Mobile Air Defense Fire Group receives is an order to go out. Usually, this happens before the air raid alert starts in the Kyiv region. Each group is assigned several locations, and they roughly calculate where to go. If they arrive and this position is inconvenient, they can move.
It takes Kostiantyn's group about five to ten minutes to get to their location from the base. The vehicle is immediately turned off. There must be complete silence so that they can hear the sound of the approaching drone. It makes the sound of a motorcycle and can be heard from about 250 meters away. Everyone immediately begins to do their job.
"I set up the machine gun, and my assistant brings in the ammunition. The driver turns on the spotlight at this time to check that everything is working and nothing is out of order… Then we put it out until we hear the sound of the Shahed. The whole preparation takes one minute," Kostiantyn said.
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At night, through a thermal camera, the Shaheds are clearly visible because the engine heats up and gives off heat. By day, they peer through binoculars. The team is on high alert. They are responsible for their small sector, waiting for the enemy to fly into it.
During the day, Kostiantyn aims unaided, but at night, a spotlight illuminates the drones so he can see where to shoot.
"I don't shoot where the spotlight is. I shoot in front of it," Kostiantyn said and continued: "You have a few seconds while the drone is in your area, and you need to do as much damage as possible."
It is very difficult to shoot down a drone. It is often the case that several Mobile Air Defense Fire Teams are working to take down a single drone. They may start in one unit’s sector and finish in another. The key is to hit the engine, propeller or front end to set off the missile.
"The difficulty is that you can shoot the drone completely, for example, damage the wing, but it can continue to fly," the military said.
And such actions can even complicate the work of your colleagues. If the drone stops flying straight, but swaying left and right, up or down, it becomes more difficult to shoot it down. The group effort means Kostiantyn cannot count the number of Shaheds he has shot down. But he says he can hit a drone from a distance of a kilometer.
A lot depends on the weather. In fog, rain or clouds, it is much harder to shoot shaheds down. The fact that the Russians have started to paint their drones black has also complicated the work. It is almost possible to see them in the dark. But Ukraine’s military is overcoming this problem as well, by illuminating the sky with a laser pointer.
The Ukrainian military said they could not tell us how many drones were damaged or shot down by Kostiantyn, due to security concerns.
However, the Ukraine’s General Staff publishes daily statistics on how many drones or missiles and what kind of missiles were shot down by Ukrainian Air Defence every night.
Earlier this week, on the night of April 23, for example, 16 out of 17 drones were shot down. On the night of April 22, five out of seven drones were shot down. On the night of April 19, Ukrainian air defense and Mobile Air Defence Fire Teams destroyed 14 out of 14 drones.
Teams like Kostiantyn’s are constantly on the move, part of a network of air defense in Ukraine that tries to create an umbrella to protect civilians.
And on most nights they are able to shoot down most of what Russia sends their way.
Konstantin's small team works well together. Everyone knows when to help each other out when they get tired. When the drones are flying, every minute counts, because a Shahed can fly into their zone at any moment.
Kostiantyn is already addicted to his work. Although he admits that his "drone hunting" work has become routine, he feels that he is making an important contribution to Ukraine by protecting people.
One day, he may stop hearing drones wherever he goes.
After the paywall: U.S. officials predict that Ukraine will be on its back foot until 2025 — even after military aid arrives. And in reporter’s notebook, Myroslava welcomes the beginning of spring in Kyiv — with all the flowers that involves. Plus, a cat of conflict!
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