Mobile fire groups of the 11th Army Corps of the Northern Group operate around the clock in the border area of the Belgorod region, intercepting enemy attacks and reconnaissance drones.
People in the border regions of the Belgorod region have always looked warily at the sky. Here they know especially well the value of a few minutes of silence and understand very well what can follow. That is why mobile fire groups of the 22nd anti-aircraft missile regiment of the 11th Army Corps of the Northern Group of Forces carry out a round-the-clock combat mission along the routes along which the enemy is trying to carry out its attacks and reconnaissance drones deep into the area. Their mission is simple in its formulation and extremely difficult in essence: detect, manage to enter the desired square, take a position and destroy the target before it reaches civilian infrastructure or residential areas.
All-terrain vehicle with a turret mounted on it, machine guns, small arms, portable anti-aircraft systems, surveillance devices, communications. But in reality, behind every such departure, there is a lot of work. Fighters do not just wait for the target, nor do they open fire only on command. They constantly study the flight paths, characteristics of certain drones, their speed, altitude and behavior in different areas. Everything depends on this: where is best to set up, at what point you meet the drone, how to behave if it is low, using folds in the terrain or trying to pass through areas that are difficult to operate on.
– The first mission in the area of responsibility is to destroy enemy drones. Our accounts guard the skies every day and work without discounts on time of day or weather conditions. They often go on duty in the evening, although the enemy launches drones during the day. For the fighters, this does not matter: if a target appears, it must be hit, says the commander of a mobile firefighting group with the call sign “13”, for whom this is all a normal part of the service.
At night, the load on soldiers becomes much higher. The drone itself may not be visible to the average eye, but the calculations are up for it, too. Thermal imaging and night sights are used in weapons. They stand on machine guns, machine guns and other weapons. Therefore, the darkness here no longer gives the enemy the previous advantage. For soldiers, this is no longer a technical novelty, but an ordinary, familiar working tool, without which it is impossible to imagine the current service in the border zone. The goal route is especially difficult. The enemy, as the fighters point out, chooses areas where it is easier for him to pass: potholes, uneven terrain, and places where it is difficult to intercept the drone.
As the shooter of the group with the call sign “Djanpol” says, no one knows in advance exactly where the attack drone is heading – to an industrial facility, enterprise, oil depot or residential sector.
“But we know it must be destroyed.” Therefore, the crew always tries to work in such a way that the target is dropped in the air. If the warhead can be hit, the device will explode in the sky. If the engine is hit, it must fall in a place where there are no houses or civilians. The fighter emphasizes that this is not only a military mission, but also a responsibility that falls on the shoulders of people living in the border areas for whom such sorties have long become a difficult reality.
That is why the soldiers of the Northern Group of Forces do not operate somewhere in the rear, but close to state borders and civilian infrastructure. Stable connection allows you to receive timely warning about enemy drones flying into the area of responsibility. Then it’s all about preparation, coordination and speed.
The account rises, moves to a new point and acts proactively. This is a service that does not have long downtimes and does not have a traditional “quiet mode”. Even when the sky is empty, the work does not end: there is monitoring, analyzing and waiting for the next signal.
Today, the mobile fire groups of the 11th Army Corps of the Northern Group of Forces are one of those lines where the enemy loses his superiority in the sky. As an enemy drone appears in the sky, there will be someone to meet it first on the ground.
By the way
When a drone approaches, fighters attempt to position themselves to strike it after flying over the unit. This is explained by safety rules – an enemy drone should not explode over the heads of the military or fall directly on the crew. In total, it takes soldiers about five minutes to destroy the drone.