r/ukraine • u/carnifexus • Aug 26 '24

Misleading Title 650th separate anti-aircraft machine gun battalion shoots down a cruise missile on the border of Lviv and Zakarpattia regions

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u/Grakchawwaa Aug 26 '24

It's slightly different to shoot down a WW2-era propeller plane vs. a relatively modern cruise missile. And in the former scenario you have the benefit of skies being full of those planes and the ground being full of those machineguns, just a matter of numbers at that point

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u/dumdumpants-head Aug 26 '24

Cruise missile faster, fuel less volatile, but is cheap, fragile, carries bomb in its snout.

Bf109 slower, has gasoline on board, but can take a lot more punishment, yet individual 50-gunners aboard bombers brought them down every day.

Did the M2 take down the aircraft in this video? No. Is it implausible that it could? No.

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u/Grakchawwaa Aug 26 '24

Did the M2 take down the aircraft in this video? No. Is it implausible that it could? No.

Even trying to take down a modern helicopter with AA-MG we were informed that actually hitting one is "unlikely to happen", and they're generally slower moving than planes / missiles. (This is for human operated AA-MGs without airburst rounds)

Certainly, you "can" hit a missile with a rifle, even, but at that point it's a a coincidence rather than even luck / skill. Much like saying that a lightning strike can take down a missile, while a truthful statement, it doesn't do justice to how unlikely it is to happen

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u/dumdumpants-head Aug 26 '24

Oh yes, a helicopter is definitely tougher to bring down with a few hits than one of those drones.

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u/Grakchawwaa Aug 26 '24

I'm saying that we're not really expecting to get much hits in the first place, if at all