An anti-aircraft gunner of a portable anti-aircraft missile system shot down a Russian Kalibr-type cruise missile with one shot.
The story of the successful defeat was told by the Air Command "West" of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook.
According to the "West" police station, everything happened at night - in complete darkness, when it is practically impossible to detect the target.
"Portable anti-aircraft missile systems have a thermal homing system. The shooter must fix the target in the sight, wait until the homing head of the anti-aircraft missile captures it, and then launch it. All this is quite difficult to do even during the day. There are about two dozen seconds to detect, capture the target, and fire. This is how long the MANPADS battery works, which powers all the systems of the complex. At night, it is practically impossible to hit the target, because it is very difficult to visually detect a cruise missile and aim the MANPADS at it in a matter of seconds," the publication explains in the video.
However, Volodymyr - an anti-aircraft gunner from the security section of the tactical aviation brigade - was able to do the practically impossible and with the first shot, he detected and destroyed a Russian cruise missile from the Igla-1 MANPADS.
"It was difficult, but we managed, " says Volodymyr. " We arrived at the position in advance. We expected a cruise missile to fly in that exact spot and were not mistaken. We waited for it to appear in the strike zone. We acted calmly and clearly. We hit with the first shot."
They don't go into detail about how everything was achieved: "... our secret, which the enemy shouldn't know. We use modern targeting and target detection systems."
Volodymyr admits that after the confirmation of the shooting, emotions were overwhelming.
The "Zahid" PC specifies that this is the second target destroyed by the anti-aircraft gun. In the summer of 2023, it shot down the first enemy Kh-101 cruise missile.
Earlier, "Apostrophe" wrote how a Ukrainian MiG-29 pilot with the call sign Denfix spoke about his combat work . He admits that he eliminates Russian "Shaheed" strike aircraft at night, and works as a bomber during the day. Currently, the pilot's combat account includes more than two dozen destroyed cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.