Ukraine Drone Operators' Skill, Precision and Lethality Have Increased Exponentially

Flying around anti-drone cages and into open hatches has become something of a battle honor for increasingly skilled drone pilots. JL 

Chris Panella reports in Business Insider:

Operators on both sides are flying unmanned aerial vehicles with astonishing precision and lethality, destroying everything from individual soldiers to expensive, high-value targets like top tanks. In one (recent example), the drone flies towards the tank, navigates carefully through what appears to be a cage built on top of it and down into the tank's open hatch before exploding and, apparently, setting off the ammo inside. Drone operators have become invaluable assets, as well as prime targets. Operators have been documented using their drones to target each other, hoping to take out their enemy's capabilities for flying the UAVs that have complicated battlefield maneuver and combat operations.

A new chilling video shows a Ukrainian drone flying directly into the open command hatch of one Russia's main battle tanks before exploding and, apparently, setting off the ammo inside.

It's the latest example of how operators on both sides are flying unmanned aerial vehicles with astonishing precision and lethality, destroying everything from individual soldiers to expensive, high-value targets like top tanks.

The video was originally posted on Telegram on April 11 by the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and, later, shared on X. In it, Ukrainian first-person view drones conduct several successful strikes on Russian systems and vehicles, including what experts identified as a Russian T-90M tank, a weapon Putin has called "the world's best tank."

In one particular portion of the footage, the drone flies towards the tank, navigates carefully through what appears to be a cage built on top of it and down into the tank's open hatch.

 

The footage then cuts to a surveillance drone's perspective of an explosion inside the tank from a likely ammunition cook off.

 

"FPV drone operators of the 8th Separate Regiment of the SSO inflicted significant losses on the enemy in the Donetsk direction," the Ukraine's Special Operations Forces said on Telegram.

The SSO claimed to have successfully eliminated a T-90, a T-72, and two other vehicles, as well as carried out individual attacks on Russian soldiers in trenches.

These kinds of high-precision kills are not new for Ukraine. Back in November 2023, a Ukrainian service member from the UAV unit known as the Magyar Birds with the 59th Motorized Brigade shared footage of a number of exploding FPV drones flying into the open hatches of Russian vehicles.

 

In that video, the voiceover says that "if a direct hit isn't working, then the mastery and experience of the pilot becomes most important," per a translation.

Drone operators have become invaluable assets for both sides of the war, as well as prime targets. In some cases, operators have been documented using their drones to target each other, hoping to take out their enemy's capabilities for flying the UAVs that have dramatically complicated battlefield maneuver and combat operations.

 

The recent attack on the apparent T-90M is another notable loss for the Russian army.

Back in January, Ukraine called the claim that it is "the world's best tank" into question after one of its US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles was able to overwhelm one with chain gun fire during combat in Stepove, a village outside Avdiivka in northeastern Ukraine.

 

In the video footage from the battle, the Bradley can be seen engaging in an intense fight with the T-90M, wrecking it with fire from its M242 25mm Bushmaster chain gun. After the modern main battle tank spins out of control and catches on fire, its crew abandons it, and Ukraine sends in an FPV drone to finish the job.