Drones on the Horizon: The FPV Drone War and Countering Them

FPV drones (first person view) are powerful weapons that are not only becoming more and more common on the battlefields of the Russian-Ukrainian war, but also often decide the fate of entire battles.

An accurate single strike of such a drone in the hands of a trained pilot can destroy not only an enemy warehouse or BC, but also directly enemy fighters, a dugout with officers, a firing point or even heavy equipment, which our operators have repeatedly succeeded in doing.

But FPV drones threaten not only our enemy. The entire military-industrial complex of the enemy is currently working intensively on war, and the field of drones is one of the most striking examples.

Adapting to the conditions of modern warfare, the Russians quickly understood the role of UAVs for conducting active combat operations. Due to practically unlimited access to cheap components from China, the production of drones in the Russian Federation is growing at an extraordinary pace.

Recently, a new Russian development came into service with the occupying forces – the “Ovod” kamikaze drone, capable of hitting the positions of Ukrainian fighters with fragmentation and high-explosive fragmentation projectiles. At the end of June 2023, the occupiers used “Ovod” for the first time in the occupied territory of the Donetsk region.

This drone belongs to the class of first-person kamikaze drones. The operator can receive images from the drone’s camera, which captures its flight to the target, both on the monitor and directly on the virtual reality glasses. due to this, the danger from strikes by such drones is particularly high.

And if our allies and simply unconcerned citizens continue to use their efforts to transfer such necessary drones in tens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of pieces — as if covering the needs of the front — then the danger of using similar weapons against the Ukrainian Defense Forces is still too high.

On wide areas of the front, the threat from UAVs can be overcome thanks to the use of powerful stationary radio electronic warfare (ERW) systems, which simply “jam” the operation of enemy unmanned and radio-controlled devices.

However, the protection of small areas of the front from enemy attacks from above still remains a weak point of the Ukrainian army. In addition, the mentioned FPV drones have another advantage over conventional EW systems, because they mainly use an analog method of data transmission, which is more difficult to intercept.