A Ukrainian Air Force F-16 pilot shot down six Russian cruise missiles using air-to-air missiles and the onboard M61 20 mm gatling gun in a single sortie.
The Ukrainian Air Force announced the successful multi-interception. The interception with guns is unusual, considering the difficulty of hitting another aircraft with guns, let alone cruise missiles.
The pilot likely used the gatling gun after running out of missiles, which are likely AIM-9L/M and AIM-120 AMRAAM types supplied alongside F-16s.
To hit a target as small as a cruise missile, getting close is only one step as possible disturbances affect the aircraft’s orientation and manoeuvres by missiles. The easiest approach would be shooting the missiles from the rear, much like in a dogfight.
There have been studies of alternative effectors against cruise missiles for fighter jets, as purpose-built air-to-air missiles are too few and expensive.
The U.S. tested the idea of coupling APKWS laser-guided rockets and SNIPER targeting pod to shoot down cruise missiles on a target drone in 2019.
This incident might bring another idea to the spotlight again in the historical journey, as this has been the case for kamikaze boats (or USVs as of now), machine guns’ use as short-range air defence assets alongside larger SPAAGs, and coastal defence systems.
