Night Vision Fiber Optic Ukraine Drones Hitting Russian Troops As They Sleep

From the start of the invasion three years ago, the Ukrainians have been better at night-time operations than the Russians. 

That has now extended into the drone-sphere as aerial drones with infrared cameras and 13 mile long fiber optic cables enable precision strikes inside the quarters of sleeping Russian soldiers. JL

David Axe reports in Forbes:

An explosive first-person-view drone operated by Ukraine's elite Birds of Magyar unit slipped into a building and struck snoozing Russians, likely killing or wounding many of them. An FPV drone has three critical components in addition to its airframe, motors and propellers: a warhead, a battery and a voluminous container for a spool of thin fiber-optic cable that might be 13 miles long. The FPV drone that visited the snoozing Russians had an infrared camera, making it capable of around-the-clock operations.

Russian soldiers were snug in their sleeping bags, sleeping off a hard day of combat in a building presumably somewhere along the front line in eastern Ukraine when their slumber was interrupted.

An explosive first-person-view drone operated by the elite Birds of Magyar unit slipped into the building—and struck the snoozing Russians, likely killing or wounding many of them.

 

The nightmarish drone strike, captured in real time by the drone’s camera, was a bloody reminder that tiny drones are everywhere all the time all along the 700-mile front line of Russia’s 37-month wider war on Ukraine.

A simple net or screen—or even just closing a door—might’ve saved the sleeping Russians. Their negligence doomed them. One unfortunate Russian seemed to wake up and notice the drone right before it struck.

The FPV drone that visited the snoozing Russians wasn’t just any FPV. It had an infrared camera, making it capable of around-the-clock operations. And it was probably a fiber-optic model that sent and received its signals via a millimeters-thick but miles-long cable rather than jammable radio. A building’s walls would normally muddle a drone’s radio signal.

With a skilled operator, a fiber-optic FPV can go where a radio FPV can’t. Both Russia and Ukraine are deploying the pricier but deadlier fiber-optic drones in growing numbers. A Russian fiber-optic drone recently discovered and then struck a Ukrainian howitzer—by peeking inside the barn where the big gun was tucked away.

The nighttime strike on somnolent Russians might not have been possible just a few months ago. The first generation of Ukrainian fiber-optic FPVs was awkward and inefficient in design—and potentially too bulky to maneuver through a building.

Any FPV drone has three critical components in addition to its basic airframe, motors and propellers: a warhead, a battery and a voluminous container for a spool of thin fiber-optic cable that might be 13 miles long.

A Ukrainian fiber-optic drone.

Unmanned Systems Forces capture

Evolving drones

The very first generation of Ukrainian FPV drone stacked each element—the warhead, battery and spool—on top of each other in an awkward pile. It should go without saying that the stack wasn’t very aerodynamic. “We oppose three-story drones as they have low energy efficiency,” an official with the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces branch said in an official video.

The next two drone generations combined elements. One stuffed the warhead inside the spool. The other stuffed the battery inside the spool. Both of these combos are more aerodynamic than the triple-stack drone, but the battery-inside version is more modular: it’s easier to swap in different warhead types, such as shaped-charge warheads optimized for penetrating vehicle armor.

It’s worth noting that Russia has also settled on two-story fiber-optic drone models. At best, the Ukrainians have matched the Russians’ basic design. Now it’s incumbent on them “to surpass [the Russians] in both quantity and quality” of fiber-optic drones, the USF official said.

That Ukraine’s fiber-optic FPVs are now sneaking up on Russians in their sleeping bags is a good indication that the drones are becoming extremely capable. The stuff of nightmares to their targets.