Ukraine Drone Operators' Video Gaming Improve Flying Targeting Skills

Goggles, joystick, blowing things up? 

The difference between playing video games and operating a drone on the frontlines versus Russia share a lot of similarities. JL 

Mia Jankowicz reports in Business Insider:

Ukrainian drone operators' video game abilities are coming to the fore on the battlefield. They operate drones using a joystick and a virtual reality headset — hence the video game comparisons. Small and nimble, FPVs - known as loitering munitions or "suicide" drones - designed to explode on impact with their target can take out one of Russia's multimillion-dollar T-90 tanks. On Sunday, Ukraine's Air Assault Force shared footage of an FPV striking another T-90. "Every time I put on my goggles and take the joystick, I recall my mother telling me that video games would not do me any good,"

A Ukrainian drone operator's video game abilities are coming to the fore on the battlefield, according to Reuters. 

The 25-year-old, identified only as Mykhailo, is one of many Ukrainians operating small and inexpensive first-person view drones, which are now in constant use against Russian forces.

Mykhailo operates the drones using a joystick and a virtual reality headset — hence the video game comparisons. 

"Every time I put on my goggles and take the joystick, I recall my mother telling me that those video games would not do me any good," he told the outlet, adding: "Well, if this isn't useful, then what is?"

It's not the first time the video game comparison has been made.

In an interview with The Guardian earlier this month, a Ukrainian drone operator called Olexandr said: "It's like playing a computer game, you know?"

Olexandr had been a software engineer before the war, but has gained a reputation as one of the country's deadliest drone pilots, according to the outlet.

Ukraine is employing many of these cheap FPV drones, which can be made from off-the-shelf commercial drones and kitted out with explosives. Also known as loitering munitions or "suicide" drones, they are designed to explode on impact with their target.

 

Their low cost — about a few hundred dollars each — makes them extremely cheap compared to the multimillion-dollar Bayraktar drones that gained huge attention early in the full-scale invasion. Those drones have largely disappeared from the skies, as Insider's Alia Shoaib previously reported. 

Small and nimble, FPVs can have an outsize impact — video footage circulating online last week from an FPV's eye view appeared to show it taking out one of Russia's multimillion-dollar T-90 tanks. On Sunday, Ukraine's Air Assault Force shared footage of an FPV striking another T-90.

But the tactic, which has been adopted en masse by Ukrainian forces, is far from infallible. Ukrainian operators say they have a success rate of about 50-80% — much lower than other, more expensive drones being put into battle, according to The Economist.

Russia is also skilled at using electronic signal jammers, which can interfere with the GPS on drones and with radio communications, as Insider's Michael Peck reported.

 

A report released in May by the UK's Royal United Services Institute estimated that Ukraine was losing an average of 10,000 drones per month, with small drones likely accounting for the bulk of them, drone expert James Patton Rogers told Insider.