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๐Ÿšจ Big news from the Black Sea. Yesterday evening, a Ukrainian naval drone shot down a Russian Su-30 fighter jet 50 km west of Novorossiysk using an R-73 air-to-air missile. This is the first known instance of a drone using an AAM to down a fighter jet. Historic and humiliating for Russia.

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The advantage is that R-73 missiles are available. And this is hardly a new thing to convert AAM's that way. The US did this with Chapparal (ground launched Sidewinder) in the past, and Germany and France are doing it with IRIS-T SLS and MICA-VL respectively.

The advantage of doing this over launching the missile from a plane is that they shot down a Russian plane without risking a Ukrainian plane. If you're asking what the advantage is relative to using a SAM, it's more capable than a MANPAD, it's small enough to launch from a USV, and Ukraine has it.