Ukraine’s Drone-Killer, An-28 Aerial Gunship

“Ukraine is using at least one adapted Antonov An-28 Cash twin-turboprop utility aircraft as part of its anti-drone inventory. While images of the aircraft, replete with multiple drone-kill marks, had previously been published, we now get to see the aircraft’s armament, a six-barrel, Gatling-type, M134 Minigun, in action, too.” — Thomas Newdick, for The War Zone, February 5, 2026.

Advertisement

 

“It’s two in the morning. There are targets in the air in the southeast. As pilots, we try to counter these drones using our aircraft, shooting them down with a machine gun.” — Ukrainian An-28TD aircrew member, February 2026.

 

On February 4, 2026, the French TF1 television outlet (based in Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris) aired a report that they had flown a very recent, nighttime, combat mission aboard a Ukrainian, civilian Antonov An-28TD Cash light transport aircraft, armed with a pintle-mounted, side-firing, Dillon Aero M134D electric Gatling gun in the cabin doorway. The twin-engine, 15-passenger, An-28 series was designed in Ukraine, but manufactured in Poland from 1986 to 1993, and only 16 remain in airline or private service worldwide, with three of those registered in Ukraine (UR-CKQ, UR-NTE, and UR-28768, of “Ukraine Aero Klub”), two in private ownership, and one at the State Enterprise Antonov.

One of them, UR-CKQ, a 1988-model, is privately-owned, and painted overall light gray, which is unusual for an An-28. These are 1988-1989 models, which typically fly from Kyiv Chaika Airport, a mostly-grass airstrip at the western edge of the capital city of Kyiv.

Private aircraft were only permitted to intercept Russian drones beginning in June 2025, and the first reports of an An-28TD being used as a drone-killer emerged on October 6, 2025. It’s a short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) aircraft that can take off in 1,350 feet, and land in just 1,033 feet, which is truly remarkable by any standard.

When the French TF1 TV crew arrived for their flight, their assigned An-28TD already bore 115 drone-kill markings on the left side of the forward fuselage, and the four-man, Ukrainian aircrew (pilot, copilot, camera operator, and gunner) shot down five additional, Russian Shahed/Geran drones in that single mission, over unpopulated areas, such as remote fields and forests.

The An-28TD crew is initially guided to the target area, where Russian drones are known to be operating, by air traffic controllers, and then the crew detects the drones either visually, in daylight conditions, or by FLIR camera operator, at night.

“We try to intercept as many as possible and shoot them down in safe areas: fields, forests, but never over homes,” the An-28 pilot declared.

Once a Russian drone is detected at close range, the gunner, positioned at the left rear doorway, and equipped with night-vision goggles (NVGs), aims and fires his American-made, Dillon Aero (of Arizona) M134D, six-barrel, electric Gatling gun (or “minigun”) in 7.62x51mm NATO, which normally fires at a fixed rate of 3,000 rounds per minute, or 50 rounds per second, allowing for a concentrated burst of three to four seconds, capable of instantly destroying most hostile drones.