The evolution of fight; how the use of drones in Ukraine is changing warfare forever
Pictured: Ukrainian FPV drones await delivery to a military unit at an undisclosed location just behind the frontline
I’m at a location ten kilometres behind the front line, speaking with “Professor,” the callsign of a soldier from Ukraine’s elite Separate Presidential Brigade of the National Guard. “In the last six months, this war has completely changed,” Professor offered his stark assessment. The Ukrainian soldier was referring specifically to the proliferation of FPV — “first person view” — drones on the battlefield. These unmanned aerial vehicles are small, inexpensive, and so deadly that their deployment en masse by both Ukraine and Russia is having an outsized impact on the battlefield.
The lethality of such systems is an assessment that is shared at every level of the Ukrainian military. “Drones currently kill more soldiers from both sides than anything else,” Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavlyuk, Commander of Ukrainian ground forces, told The Times. “They have also created a scenario where drones can see almost everything, not only on the front line but also at depths of 10 to 30 km on both sides”.
The FPV drones flown by Professor's brigade are backpack-sized aircraft that are weaponised versions of the kinds of racing drones originally flown by hobbyists wearing virtual reality style headsets. And they are absolutely ubiquitous in the skies up and down the line. “We used to reserve our FPV drones for armoured vehicles,” Professor explained. “Now we can afford to send out three to chase down one Russian soldier.”
Chasing down is exactly what these little drones do. Too fast to outrun, in many cases too fast to outdrive, they are nimble enough to fly into a bunker, trench, or even the open hatch of an armoured vehicle. Videos posted on both Russian and Ukrainian social media show individual soldiers being hunted by these small flying bombs, engaging in a deadly game of tag with the human piloting the drone kilometres away. And darkness provides no respite — the most sophisticated FPV models are equipped with thermal optics, and therefore have no problem hunting at night.
As its inventory of artillery shells dried up — largely thanks to political deadlock in Washington — Ukrainian units took to using such drones as a substitute for heavier, more traditional types of weaponry. “They’re often more effective, and definitely more efficient, than conventional artillery,” Professor told me. For example, in December 2022, the cost of a single 155mm shell ordered as part of a bulk shipment of 100,000 from the German armaments concern Rheinmetall was $3,582, and as is the case with unguided artillery, typically multiple rounds would need to be fired and “corrected” before a hit on the desired target was scored. A typical one-way FPV drone, on the other hand, costs between $300 and $500, and if the operator is sufficiently skilled, it can be flown directly into a moving target. The most experienced pilots know exactly where to hit armoured vehicles in order to disable or destroy them, and even if the first drone misses the mark, another is quickly on the way.
Massed Russian attacks are now invariably met by a swarm of FPV drones, which are guided onto their targets by larger, more expensive, commercially procured UAVs that are used for the purpose of battlefield surveillance. This type of coordination is critical for a successful attack, as the typical endurance of an FPV drone is measured in minutes. According to Professor, Ukraine still has the advantage when it comes to FPV drones, at least for the moment. Ukrainian pilots are more experienced, meaning they’re better fliers, he believes, and because Ukraine pioneered their usage, Ukrainian tactics are better developed, and therefore currently superior.
Another Ukrainian officer I spoke to had a more pessimistic view. “Recently, our infantry and front line units have had more problems with Russian drones than they do with ours,” “Ihor,” the commander of a recon team currently fighting near Chasiv Yar, told me. The Russians have the advantage in quantity, Ihor believes, and even if their pilots aren’t as experienced, they often overwhelm Ukrainian defenders with sheer numbers. He gives examples of recent engagements in which “heavily defended” Ukrainian fighting positions, despite being armed with anti-drone rifles — a type of handheld electronic warfare device — were overwhelmed by waves of Russian FPV drones attacking from multiple directions. First they targeted the anti-drone rifle, he said. Then, once that was disabled, they destroyed the fighting position itself, with further waves of FPV drones executing strikes and larger quadcopters dropping grenades before the Russian infantry assault ultimately commenced. “The problem is that too many of our people are dying because of Russian FPV drones,” Ihor said. “We need countermeasures now even more than we need higher numbers of FPVs.
Both sides have invested heavily in electronic warfare in an attempt to combat the other’s FPV drones. Any fighting position, vehicle, or infantry unit not equipped with anti-drone equipment is vulnerable if it is located at essentially any point within ten kilometres of the front line. When driving just behind the frontline it is now extremely common to see small FPV drone jammers mounted on the roofs of Ukrainian military vehicles — a sight that was comparatively rare until just a few months ago. And as these jammers proliferate, both Ukrainian and Russian FPV designers have begun creating drones with semi-autonomous guidance systems, making them far less vulnerable to enemy electronic warfare. “Our drones have evolved and can now hit targets almost by themselves!” Serhii Sternenko, a Ukrainian activist and influencer, posted on Twitter, sharing a video showing a Ukrainian drone successfully engaging a Russian tank despite the video link between the drone and the operator being severed by Russian electronic warfare. The successful impact was observed by another Ukrainian drone, watching from some distance away.
“The significance of this autonomous technology cannot be underestimated,” Yuri Vysoven, the founder of the Ukrainian NGO “Drones for Ukraine,” which supplies UAVs to the Ukrainian military, told me. “For now, electronic warfare is the only practical way to counter FPV drones, especially on their final approach to target,” Vysoven says before predicting that the widespread adoption of autonomous guidance technology in FPV drones could lead to a “ten kilometre dead zone, where nothing can survive, not even infantry.”
As the quality of drones improves, Ukraine is seeking to close the quantity gap, setting lofty targets for FPV drone production. President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in December that Ukraine aims to manufacture one million FPV drones in 2024, and his generals support the initiative. “Developing the use of unmanned systems is my priority,” newly appointed Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a statement posted on his Facebook page. “We are looking for asymmetric solutions to gain a qualitative advantage over a quantitatively superior enemy.”