Belfast-made missile ‘shoots down its first Russian helicopter’
A BELFAST-MADE surface-to-air missile has shot down its first Russian aircraft in Ukraine, it was reported yesterday – just days after it was deployed there for the first time.
The Starstreak missile, which reaches more than three times the speed of sound to take down lowflying targets, is believed to have hit the helicopter over the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.
Footage emerged showing a Russian Mil Mi-28N helicopter skimming the treetops before it was hit in the tail by the missile and then bursting into flames and disintegrating.
Local media reported that Ukrainian armed forces had shot it down with ‘the help of the most modern British Starstreak’.
Other footage shows the wreckage of the aircraft strewn across a road as it’s inspected by Ukrainian troops.The two crew of the helicopter reportedly survived. British defence secretary Ben Wallace revealed in last week’s Mail on Sunday that the first Ukrainian troops had completed their training on the cutting-edge system, and it was ready to be used imminently against Russian targets.
He said it would ‘allow the Ukrainian forces to better defend their skies’.
The downing of the helicopter led to an angry reaction from Andrey Kelin, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, who accused Britain of escalating the war by supplying Kyiv with weapons. ‘All arms supplies are destabilising, particularly those mentioned by Wallace,’ said Mr Kelin. ‘They exacerbate the situation, making it even bloodier. Apparently, those are new, high-precision weapons.
Naturally, our armed forces will view them as a legitimate target if those supplies get through the Ukrainian border.’
But Mr Wallace vowed: ‘There will be more lethal aid going into Ukraine. Ukraine needs longerrange artillery and that’s because of what the Russian army has been doing, which is now digging in and starting to pound these cities with artillery.
‘The best counter to that is other long-range artillery, so [Ukraine will] be looking for and getting more long-range artillery, ammunition predominantly. They are also looking for armoured vehicles of some types.’
Each of the Starstreaks – made by the aerospace company Thales in Belfast – splits into three darts to puncture armour before the warheads detonate, with the darts being guided by an operator on the ground.
Thales is a French firm whose air defence division is based in Castlereagh, Belfast, having taken over Short’s Missile Systems.
Weapons such as its NLAW anti-tank bazooka and Starstreak anti-aircraft missile are built in the city.
The Ukrainian troops were trained at a secret location in a neighbouring country.
The Starstreak system is so complex that operators must have 1,000 successful hits on a simulator before they are allowed to launch a live missile.
‘Our forces view them as a legitimate target’