- Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) engaged a Russian Mi-28 attack helicopter in flight over the Belgorod region with a SkyFall Shrike 10 FPV drone, striking the helicopter from above
- The attack, which saw a $400 drone strike and ‘kill’ a $19 million attack helicopter according to Skyfall, represents an impressive 47,500x exchange ratio
- The attack is not isolated: Russia has lost over 20+ Mi-28s in similar attacks since the conflict began in 2022
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to widen as the latter continues to use asymmetric warfare to hold its own against a rival with superior technology and manpower, even as the conflict enters its fifth year.
Much of this is due to Ukraine’s pivot to manufacturing homegrown drones and bots, which help counter heavy Russian weapons such as tanks, helicopters and APCs that use cheap but effective drones and bots to hold the line.
It has also allowed several startups to join the fray, offering low-cost options, often funded by outside partners and allies, to bolster Ukraine’s war effort, and SkyFall’s Shrike 10 FPV drone is one of them.
An impressive achievement, albeit with disputed claims
The Shrike 10 FPV drone, which costs less than a mid-range smartphone, flew up alongside a Russian Mi-28 attack helicopter, climbed above it and dived into its tail boom on the morning of July 17, 2026, in Russia’s Belgorod region.
The attack was carried out by operators of the 427th Separate Unmanned Systems Brigade “Rarog” and confirmed by Major Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), who published the drone’s own footage of the final approach on Telegram with the brief text that the “Night Hunter” had gone down.
Ukrainian company SkyFall, whose FPY drone, the Shrike 10, was involved in the attack, said it was priced at less than $400 per drone. Mi-28, according to the same company, costs 19 million dollars.
While the headline is impressive, the math may not quite add up: other sources estimate the cost of the Mi-28 at around $15 million, while a recent deal with Germany (50,000 SkyFall-built FPV drones for Ukraine, equipped with autonomous targeting software from US company Auterion, worth €90 million (~$103 million) may have meant some freedoms for $0 may have meant some freedoms for $0 have been 0 to 0). although the Shrike 10 that attacked the Mi-28 may be differently configured or at the lower end of the spectrum.
The incident, which sees Ukraine claim a kill on what is an expensive part of the Russian arsenal, is partly unconfirmed, with independent observers pointing out that there is no subsequent video and that attack helicopters often survive and land successfully after such hits. However, to Ukraine’s credit, a similar kill was reported in 2025 by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, with footage to confirm the crash that followed.
Regardless of the sum, the fact that a drone that costs a ten-thousandth of an attack helicopter that has been retrofitted to hunt it down is a credible predator of the same potential is alarming not only to the Russians but to military planners around the world, even if the damage in question may be open to dispute.
This is further corroborated by unverified sources who claim the damage was ‘minor’ and did not affect either of the helicopter’s two occupants at the time, thereby disputing much of SkyFall’s claims beyond the drone’s impact.
However, Russia’s Ministry of Defense has not commented directly on the matter, and no open-source tracker such as Oryx has confirmed images of wreckage either.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said the country is producing 10 million drones a year while competing for a production target of 20 million drones in the future, much of it supported by foreign aid, indicating that the Russian Mi-28, which has 20+ confirmed visual losses since the beginning of the conflict, continues to be both an attacker and defender of all shapes and sizes.
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