CDRMITTENSWhich ones of you had the "air-to-air kill of a crewed aircraft by an FPV drone" on your 2024 bingo card?
Vilianwould USA helicopters got shot down by the drone too?
talwould USA helicopters got shot down by the drone too?
I would guess so.
If we had a sensor package that could reliably detect FPV drones out there, I suspect that it’d be getting mass-produced and sent to the Ukrainians.
A helicopter can go faster than an FPV drone, so as long as it’s in the air, and has a bit of warning, it can just outfly the drone; the drone can’t catch up. Maybe multiple drones simultaneously coming from all directions, especially if there’s also heavy air defenses that prevent the helicopter from climbing, could still bring down a helicopter.
“A bit of warning” is probably overselling the acceleration of a traditional rotorcraft. You can’t safely get four tons of anything moving quickly using the same mechanism keeping it off the ground. Compare that with minimalist disposable quadcopters, with their zero-to-top-speed profile of “holy shit, where’d it go?”