JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images
- Given the sheer volume of enemy drones, helicopters have joined the counter-drone fight.
- In Ukraine and Israel, helicopters of all kinds are hunting down drones.
- Helicopter cannons are much cheaper than jets armed with missiles, but they're no substitute.
It's not just fighter jets and ground-based air defenses that are in the mounting drone battles. The sheer volume of drones — seen in Ukraine and Israel's fight against Iran and its militant allies — is pulling in helicopters to destroy them before it's too late.
Attack helicopters armed with rotary cannons were designed to attack ground targets like armored vehicles. Instead, they and even utility helicopters are being trained on incoming drones, a practice many warfare experts say is temporary at best. "The use of attack helicopters for countering drones is a Band-Aid solution to loitering munitions (i.e. 'kamikaze drones') but will be outdated once drones are used in swarms, and with autonomy, which are capabilities that both the Iranians and Russians are working on," said Nicholas Heras, a security expert with the New Lines Institute think tank in Washington, DC.
Both wars are seeing helicopters take on drones. Over Israel's northern skies, an Israeli AH-64 Apache attack helicopter recently shot down a Hezbollah drone with its cannon as the country's air defenses find it difficult to intercept all of the drones. On October 13, another Hezbollah drone struck an army base in central Israel, killing four soldiers.
Similarly, Ukrainian Mi-24V Hind gunships are hunting Russia's Iranian-designed Shahed drones with their 12.7mm rotary cannons and aircrew on Mi-8 Hip utility helicopters are even downing drones with machine guns.
"In general, any and every means of drone interception is ultimately in play in one form or another — that is why Ukraine is using a simple training aircraft as well," Samuel Bendett, an expert in unmanned and robotic systems at the Center for Naval Analyses, told Business Insider.
The aircraft he was referring to include propeller planes, which Ukrainian airmen are using to try and bring down drones with handheld rifles and even shotguns.
"Given their versatility, helicopters can be used to conduct air defense tasks in case of need, although this is not their primary role," Federico Borsari, a defense expert at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told BI. "Israeli Apaches have been used several times in the past to intercept hostile drones coming from Lebanon and Syria, so this is not surprising."
Some helicopters can carry air-to-air missiles that extend their engagement ranges far beyond cannons or machine guns, which require encounters so close range they risk the aircraft and its crew.
In Ukraine, a huge country compared to Israel, helicopters are a means to shield its airspace against large drone salvos.
"Given the Russian Shaheds' slow and low flight pattern, rotary aircraft can easily chase and destroy them," Borsari said. "In general, however, the use of helicopters in this role remains suboptimal, also because of the risks to aircraft and crew in similar operations."
Cannons and machine guns are far less expensive than air-to-air missiles, but they are no substitute for the accuracy and range of missiles.
"In general, helicopters are much cheaper to fly and operate compared to fighter jets, and of course, onboard heavy machine guns cost much less than air-to-air missiles," Borsari said. "However, it very much depends on the type of threat (high-speed vs slow-flying drone) and the operational context, as fighter jets can reach the target area much faster, for example."
More generally, the CEPA analyst says helicopters are a "last-resort" that comes with both costs and risks, while the brunt of these missions should fall to jamming systems, air defenses and the military lasers in development.
Helicopters are likely to continue to play a role in drone defenses, albeit as a back-up, and it's possible they could be armed with weapons to make them more effective.
In early November, a Royal Navy Wildcat multirole helicopter successfully shot down a Banshee test drone using an air-to-air missile. Modifications of this kind could make helicopters more effective drone hunters in the future, supplementing other ground- and air-based systems.
"Certainly, the integration of specific standoff [counter-unmanned aerial system] systems such as interceptor drones, cheap precision-guided munitions, and potentially high-energy lasers, could pave the way for a more prominent role of rotary aircraft for C-UAS purposes," Borsari said.
Paul Iddon is a freelance journalist and columnist who writes about Middle East developments, military affairs, politics, and history. His articles have appeared in a variety of publications focused on the region.