Russian military personnel have equipped the Igla man-portable air defense system (MANPADS) with a thermal imager from the Utyos large-caliber machine gun for night drone hunting, according to MANPADS operator Artyom.
According to him, the machine gun now acts as a target designator with tracer bullets and provides cover at close range, while the Igla guarantees destruction.
The thermal radiation of the drone's engine is sufficient for confident target acquisition, while a hit from the Utyos does not always lead to complete destruction of the hull and detonation of ammunition in the air.
To detect a target at night, we need a thermal imaging sight. We found a drawing on the Internet for attaching the sight to the rocket's launch tube. The sight itself is military, from the Utes large-caliber machine gun, so it can withstand any shaking and effectively helps us in the fight against drones.
The system with a plastic clamp allows each rocket to be equipped with a mount in advance, and the sight's memory allows you to save settings for each launch tube in order to quickly rearrange it after a shot.
Earlier www1.ru reported that Russian space forces detected the launch of more than 1,300 missiles in 2025.