The intensive UAV defense course provides fighters with skills and confidence in a real-world environment.
The fighters of the Center group are undergoing a three-day intensive UAV defense course. There they practice different ways of shooting from moving cars. The Izvestia correspondent, along with the fighters, tried to drive an SUV along the training track, fired 360 degrees and found out what difficulties our servicemen had to face.
The course of defense against UAVs
The soldiers of the 87th regiment of the 51st Donetsk Army conducted the first stage of anti-small drone training "standing firmly on the ground." It was an introductory course where they only got acquainted with flying targets.
— Then the shooting was from a comfortable position, — explained the master of sports in practical shooting, champion of Russia Anna Taranosova. — Now the military personnel are starting the second stage — working from moving cars in a very uncomfortable environment. The conditions are as close as possible to combat conditions.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
I see a lot of familiar faces at the shooting range. We met most of them when they were taking an initial course, which included getting to know a new type of weapon for them — a 12-caliber smoothbore shotgun.
Today, vehicles and short-range supply groups are becoming the main targets of small kamikaze drones. This tactic is called "battlefield isolation", when the enemy tries to turn the near rear for 10, and sometimes 15 kilometers into a continuous "road of death".
The first warm-up exercise is shooting from the back of a stationary pickup truck. The car is periodically rocked from the side, someone remembers the barracks jokes of the 80s and 90s about playing the train, shouts of "conductor, tea!" are heard. In the back, the fighters take turns trying to take a comfortable position. And instead of sporting orange plates, black ones are used, less noticeable against the background of the sky and more similar to real drones.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image Source: iz.ru
But everyone is waiting for the main thing — shooting from cars and ATVs in motion. Most of the fighters here have different experiences and ideas about how best to do this, so we need to test their hypotheses under controlled conditions.
When I ask students about their military specialty and position, many are lost, not knowing what to say. In fact, they are now gunners on supply vehicles or fighters of the foot groups of the evacuation tray. But so far, no single name has been invented for this military work.
Sample of the pen
The first laps on an off-road vehicle along a highway with a small ford and a lot of turns show that two shooters will not be able to fire 360 degrees while standing back to back off-road.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image Source: iz.ru
Well, I'm trying to make my first pass. The result is a bit unexpected: with my shooting skills and the habit of riding in pickups and buggies, I got zero downed targets and a lot of bruises. In the case of the 12-gauge and its recoil, normal one-handed shooting is almost impossible. And as soon as you start working with two hands, you immediately lose your balance and every change in the speed of the car turns into a noticeable bump and fall.
Therefore, the fighters are divided into pairs — one holds the other by a bulletproof vest and insures, the other works with a gun with both hands. On one of the pickups, military personnel pull a cable across the frame, similar to what they do when shooting helicopters in the US Army. It can be used both as a support and attached to it with a carabiner or a self-safety belt.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
Now experiments with the cable have begun: some, resting their feet on the body, transferred weight to it, others use fasteners. I decided to try again, but this time with a carabiner attached to the cable. I quickly adjusted to keep my balance and manipulate the weapon with two hands, including reloading. And the main thing here is not even that the use of such relatively simple means allows you to shoot more accurately. And the fact that this way you can create dense fire, even with a pump-action shotgun with manual reloading, working together or in threes.
The result comes with experience.
As you gain experience, your shooting results also improve. In the pauses between approaches, the future subtleties of the actual application are immediately discussed.: how to recharge, how to attach yourself with a cable. The main problem is that, if necessary, you need to be able to quickly detach yourself from the insurance in order to dismount or leave the affected car. It is for this reason that experienced fighters do not fasten themselves, but only rest against the cable.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
— In about a month, we will work out the full training system. With equipment and fighting in trenches with shooting at UAVs. There are a lot of complaints now that it's hard to carry two types of weapons (a submachine gun and a shotgun), but soldiers are afraid to walk with one. Shooting battles occur only during an assault, and for the most part you can not even take a machine gun and use only a rifle, defending yourself from drones. But we want to show that a shotgun will not be superfluous even in a trench during assault operations," explains Sergey "Lynya" Parshikov, a militia veteran, volunteer, and organizer of classes.
Both he and the athletes point out that when working with unusual weapons, not only skills and knowledge are important, but also the psychological factor of confidence. People need to feel that they are being hit, understand the effectiveness and limitations of the gun they are holding in their hands. Therefore, each Ski training course ends with shooting at real kamikaze drones so that the fighters understand what they are capable of.
Dmitry Astrakhan
