In an embarrassing video that's gone viral, Russian troops training with a mobile anti-drone gun turned what should have been a routine drill into a slapstick disaster straight out of a bad action movie.
The footage, shared Sunday by NEXTA, shows soldiers perched on a truck bed fiddling with a YakB-12.7 rotary machine gun — a beast originally designed for Mi-24 Hind helicopters but jury-rigged for ground use against Ukrainian drones.
As soon as the gunner opens fire, all hell breaks loose. The massive recoil and torque send the spinning barrels into overdrive, whipping the entire mount around like a rodeo bull on steroids. The poor operator gets flung backward and nearly tossed off the truck while the wildly gyrating weapon nearly takes out an instructor standing nearby, who ducks just in time.
One soldier can be seen scrambling for cover as the out-of-control gun continues its chaotic spin, kicking up dust and looking more like a malfunctioning carnival ride than a serious piece of military hardware.
Military watchers online were merciless. “In Russia, you don’t shoot the machine gun, the machine gun shoots you,” quipped one X user. Others called it another embarrassing example of Moscow’s improvised “drone defense” efforts, with aircraft guns slapped onto trucks because better equipment is apparently in short supply.
The clip comes amid Russia’s grinding war in Ukraine, where cheap drones have forced both sides to improvise air defenses. But this latest blooper has critics questioning just how effective those frantic adaptations really are.No word from Russian officials on the training mishap, or whether anyone got hurt beyond their pride. But the internet isn’t letting it slide.
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