Residents of Kyiv, Ukraine, witnessed the moment a Russian Gerbera kamikaze drone was destroyed by an AGM-114 Hellfire missile.
The incident occurred last Wednesday (22), according to Defence Blog. The scene was witnessed by residents of the Ukrainian capital and drew attention not only because of the drone’s destruction, but also because the Russian UAV was intercepted by a Hellfire missile.
The exact variant of the missile used has not been officially confirmed. The precise launch location is also unknown. However, it was confirmed that the Russian drone hit by the Hellfire was a Gerbera, a kamikaze-type UAV that has been appearing increasingly frequently in Ukrainian skies.
Even without official confirmation, observers and open-source analysts noted that the interception is consistent with the AGM-114L Hellfire Longbow variant, a radar-guided version of the Hellfire that enables fire-and-forget engagements without requiring the operator to maintain laser designation on the target.
The AGM-114L’s millimeter-wave radar seeker makes it particularly suited for engaging fast-moving, low-flying drones in contested urban airspace, where laser guidance can be difficult to maintain, according to Defence Blog.
The interception occurred in daylight, and the engagement was visible to multiple civilian witnesses across the city—an unusual circumstance that provided a rare public glimpse into the evolution of Ukraine’s mobile air defense network in action.
Photo: Reproduction / Social media. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
