MiG-29 Shoots Down Russian Bandеrol with an R-60 Missile at Extremely Low Altitude

The Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 fighter jet, flying at extremely low altitude, shot down a Russian Bandеrol lightweight cruise missile using an R-60 missile.

The Telegram channel Sonyashnyk, affiliated with Ukraine’s Air Force, reported this.

The channel also published footage of the Ukrainian fighter conducting the interception.

The channel said a pilot flying a modernized MiG-29MU1 performed the air defense mission.

“Only a couple of seconds to make a decision: retreat or do everything possible to protect your loved ones?!” the channel wrote.

Using air-launched weapons at such low altitudes requires the pilot to make quick, well-considered decisions.

R-60 missile

The R-60 is a Soviet lightweight guided air-to-air missile that entered service in late 1973. It is equipped with an infrared homing seeker that detects the heat radiation of an enemy aircraft or helicopter’s engines and is designed to engage maneuvering aerial targets at short distances.

By the beginning of the full-scale war with Russia, R-60 missiles were considered obsolete, as the Ukrainian arsenal had sufficient stocks of the newer R-73 missiles with better combat capabilities. However, the Ukrainian Air Force’s continuous interception of Russian cruise missiles and Shahed/Geran-2 kamikaze drones depleted missile stocks, necessitating the use of older short-range missiles.

Use of Missiles for Air Defense

In November 2025, Ihor Fedirko, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Council of Defense Industry, discussed modernizing the R-60 air-to-air missile and adapting it for launch from ground-based systems in Militarnyi’s ZBROYA project. He emphasized that this is strictly a temporary solution that allows otherwise unusable old air-to-air missiles to be put to use.

When modernizing the R-60MK and other variants of the missile, analog components are replaced with digital ones, significantly increasing the sensitivity of the older infrared homing seekers. It has been reported that “some companies have achieved nearly a tenfold improvement in sensor sensitivity.”

Banderol Missile

Russian forces are increasingly attacking Ukrainian cities with S8000 Banderol lightweight cruise missiles, production of which is ramping up.

Banderol was designed and manufactured by JSC Kronstadt. The missile has a maximum speed of 620–650 km/h and a cruising speed of 520–560 km/h. It carries an OFBCh-150 high-explosive fragmentation warhead weighing 114.3 kg, of which 49.5 kg is explosive. When launched from airborne platforms, the missile can travel up to 500 kilometers.