Motors means the drones are fast 60 MPH
top speed is nothing unusual but some
can reach 100 mph or more and they can
make very sharp turns strapped to the
underneath of the Drone using cable ties
or something similar is the payload for
fpvs this is usually an anti-tank shell
here we're using the Warhead from an
rpg7 rocket launcher that probably
weighs somewhere between 2 and
42b on top there's a battery which gives
the Drone a range of around 6 Mi and on
the front is a small camera which acts
as the drone's eyes and at the back is a
transmitter antenna you can actually see
all of that if we go back to the tape
and freeze frame right here here's the
x-shaped frame the four propellers the
battery and the antenna and underneath
is the p load which in this case seems
to be an explosive the fpv team has
improvised themselves once the Drone is
in the air the antenna sends a drones ey
view back to the pilot who uses a
headset to control it as if they were on
board this allows the pilots to make
incredibly precise adjustments striking
Russian tanks armored vehicles and
trenches at their weakest points this is
the true genius of the fpv Turning
outdated grenades and anti-tank shells
into lethal Precision weapons you can
see the pilots wearing their headsets in
the footage here and here and here we
can see what they're seeing through the
drone's camera this allows them to hit
specific wheat points on Russian
Vehicles blowing them to Smither to be
effective the fpv needs to work
alongside a surveillance drone which
looks similar but has a better camera
flying high above the battlefield their
mission is to pinpoint Russian Vehicles
troops or trenches to be attacked if
their commanders decide a Target say a
Russian tank is worth hitting they will
issue orders to a unit to strike it in
the past that unit might have used
expensive anti-tank missiles or
artillery shells but increasingly the
job is being given to cheap fpvs fpv
teams typically deploy between 1 and 3
mil behind the front line out of
immediate danger but close enough to
keep the target within range they will
set up an aial which allows them to
steer the Drone and receive video back
from it then they will launch it takes
two people to navigate the pilot and a
spotter who read the location of the
target from a tablet computer once the
tank is in sight the pilot steers the
Drone into it aiming for a weak spot
like the tracks the engine or the ammo
as the drone hits the target it payload
detonates destroying the Drone itself
and hopefully the tank along with it now
now let's watch all of that in action
here you can see the Astro team
deploying into the field after receiving
their orders riding along in the back of
a pickup truck with all their equipment
once they reached the area they're
attacking they set up their aerial
assemble the Drone and its explosive
payload and get it into the air the
pilots then pull on their goggles and
get to work looking at this slightly
blurry name patch we think this guy's
name is zachik which means bunny in
Ukrainian which would make sense of all
the other rabbit patches he's wear
wearing and this rather fetching pair of
camo bunny ears here you can see his
spotter using a tablet computer to guide
him once zek can see the target himself
he dive bombs the Drone straight into it
the surveillance drone spots an
explosion and the attack is a success
cue the celebrations before the team
packs up and heads back to base all of
which is very impressive but are fpv
drones really a revolution in Modern
Warfare and can they be compared to the
invention of gunpowder or the nuclear
bomb let's take a step back from
Battlefield tactics and talk strategy
Ukraine is locked into a war of
attrition with Russia the winner will be
whichever side can exhaust the enemy's
resources fastest Russia has a huge
natural Advantage it has more of
everything troops tanks planes ships you
name it and it can easily get more of
whatever it needs because it is a
massive country with lots of natural
resources that means Putin can afford to
take losses and still win Ukraine
doesn't have that luxury it needs to
maximize Russian losses whilst
minimizing its own in other words
Ukraine needs to be efficient and there
are few weapons on the battlefield today
more efficient than fpv drones before
fpvs taking out troops tanks and
aircraft was mainly the job of artillery
and missiles we saw this at the
beginning of the war when shelling de
demolish Russian columns on their way
into K while missiles blasted tanks and
shot helicopters out of the sky but
artillery isn't all that accurate a
standard 155 mm NATO shell has what's
called a circular area probable of 650
ft that means a little over half the
time the shell lands 325 ft either side
of the thing it was fired at the rest of
the time it lands outside of this circle
so in order to hit anything with
artillery you can't fire just one shell
you need at least dozens possibly
hundreds to blanket an area to guarantee
a kill artillery therefore chews through
ammo and even though shells are
relatively cheap and easy to make
Ukraine is constantly running out
missiles are much more accurate using
sensors and motors to guide themselves
to their targets you can be fairly sure
of a hit even when firing just one or
two but they're very expensive and
difficult to manufacture a single us
Javelin costs around
$200,000 and even America with its vast
military industrial complex only makes
just over 2,000 of them per year fpvs
solve the shortcomings of both they're
cheap and easy to make almost anyone can
knock one up in a shed using a few
hundred of components that are readily
available online in fact a lot of
ukrainians do this raising funds for
them through online line Dron naations
before sending the home wave weapons to
the front they're also pinpoint Acura
able to fly through Tang hatches or
strike precise weak points in the armor
often with spectacular results they're
also very hard to stop lots of high-tech
anti-air defenses could take them down
but the drones are so easy to make
there's no point eventually those air
defenses will run out of ammo and then
the drones can fly straight through that
means almost everything on the
battlefield is vulnerable to them
Ukraine has used them to hit troops
tanks trenches artillery guns even other
drones and helicopters that's why some
people think they're revolutionary they
made Precision weapons that used to be
available to a select few available to
almost anyone we've seen similar
technology used successfully in Gaza by
Kamas against the IDF and in the Red Sea
by the houthis against an array of
Western navies but fpvs are not perfect
they struggle to deploy in bad weather
and because they rely on the Pilot's
vision for targeting they are vulnerable
to things like smoke fog and decoys they
are extremely vulnerable to being shot
down because they have no protection
beyond their speed one of the weakest
points of fpv drones is they rely on a
signal to steer these signals can be
blocked by electronic Jammers which
cause them to fall from the sky or Veer
off Target AI might help solve that
issue Ukraine is now experimenting with
drones that can select their own targets
meaning they don't need a pilot no pilot
means nobody to communicate with hence
no signal and nothing to jam there's no
doubt these drones have proved a
GameChanger in Ukraine their strengths
cheap and deadly play perfectly into the
brutal game of numbers the two sides are
playing in the wide open Plains of
eastern Ukraine where tanks are very
obvious and obstacles are few the Drone
can easily find their way to their
targets but in dense environments that
are very difficult to navigate could a
skilled pilot even make it through and
even if they did they would only be
aiming at infantry which is a far less
valuable Target we wanted to know more
so we spoke to a man who is producing
drones for the Ukrainian Army this is
vadir Lan of the direct inclusion
Foundation First I asked him what life
has been like since Putin's first
invasion in 2014 I hardly remember the
time for the war because the war had
started 10 years ago I was born in do
it's my native City I lived there for
more than uh 30 years and um while the
work had started I had to move from
there because I don't uh I don't want to
support this um this revolution like
they call like this uh Russia world this
Invasion I don't want to be a part of it
so I had to move a lot of people that
you that were my relatives uh has have
stayed and now they're working this
administration because you have no
choice you must work with them or you
will be killed you will be taken into
basement and like tort to death so I've
stopped like uh the whole part of my
life I've stopped communicating with a
lot of people unfortunately so that was
like the breaking point and for this all
all for this like 18 years uh
till the uh full scale Invasion that
Russ I knew that it would Happ because
it is the essence of Rashid to make like
these sudden attacks to capture
territory to capture people to use
people so um literally they want to use
a population of Ukraine as a result of
urbanization and to move into po to mova
and to uh kinian ground
because their plan is to reite all the
territory story that was like other the
USSR occupation so let's let's call it
like this occupation are countries that
were occupied by USSR all this period
like for8 years I Was preparing I Was
preparing a team I Was preparing myself
so now we are living not like usually
persons I have a special pening bag so
with my documents with some food with
some money with some medicines and it is
part of life even my children know that
there is like a penic back we look to
grab some water food and like in few
minutes we have to go I always keep like
T of my car full with gasoline it's like
like life made me like this then came
Russia's full scale invasion in 2022 we
were ready we were active and we started
to uh do so by the first we have created
our foundation and we started to help
both civilians who suffered from uh this
war and
to the military of course because a lot
of my friends in the first day they just
took this weapon this scalos four
magazines of uh bullets and they jumped
on the military like vehicles and went
to war I wanted to help them because
they had no helmets they had no armor
place they had nothing so and we start
to together this everything that they we
couldn't get because it was a lack of
everything you know it was literally
like disaster for our country we started
that uh we have enough hels we have
enough alal ples but we look weaponry
and in the situation with a a great lack
of artillery shells uh Ukrainian Army uh
made a desperate attempt attempt to uh
use fpv technology fpv draws instead of
artillery just replaced it somehow and
in this situation uh
this usage of FP technology was so
successful that now we have I don't know
like how many new devices uh using this
technology so vadir started helping the
military get hold of drones we buy just
ready product for example we buy a lot
of mics it's like DJI mavik 3T
especially draw with thermal vision
camera also we're producing uh from the
simpl 7in draw so we just literally
print the frame the the ordinary through
the printer and put some uh modeles that
we buy in China China is the like the
best supplier for us unfortunately it
was like very funny situation when we
tried to uh buy these uh modules for the
first time this engines and processors
Chinese Chinese uh servers they thought
we were russal so they start to tell us
how to in sension it was very funny we
told guys we don't need it we just need
this weapon we have understood that they
like selling these draws both to us and
for Russians they're just
trading to both to the both sides you
know it was crazy so our production is
not very big our foundation is uh uh we
acting independently we have our our own
budget the product Iden maybe $100 per
year but if we're talking about the um
am like initiative that we have in
Ukraine we have for example rosar this
is the most successful project and they
have producted more than 100,000 fpvs
this fpvs were given to the Army it's a
really really great around and all of
these were made by volunteering movement
it's not like fate sponsorship it's one
of the ways how we ukrainians see this
war to be sojust towards us so we
literally convert all our hatred into
fpv I wanted to know more about the fpvs
that vomir produces for the Army fpv is
a technology that allows operator using
special glasses using tablet or using
phone and a camera all the very drone to
operate drone and hit the target for
example or to throw an object uh grenade
or something or termite at the positions
of the military so this technology
allows now to use this drone even uh in
the Drone Wars when we have like
intelligent drones of Russia and we
using Ukrainian drone to hunt it down so
uh this technology is very flexible it
um it uh allows the person from the safe
place to hit the enemy and this uh
technology reduces the losses of
Ukrainian troops obviously so uh what
we're doing we're using in any possible
way military tells us that we need draws
to hit targets just one time draws we
make cheapest drw that we can make like
some set of model so we are printing
this uh frame we are putting some models
depending on the situation uh then we
need like to put special program
equipment so we have a very good IT
specialist that helped us we're not like
Innovative in this we just uh took this
um all this that prog equipment that we
needed from uh our friends then we need
to calibrate it and this drw is to use
we just need uh to send it to the
military they put this explosives and
that's it the Drone works so we just
need like to put several engines we need
to put batter we need to put uh this uh
like mode so soall we need to put like
antenna to put camera and that's it the
dog is ready it's not a very big deal
everybody can do it even at home it's
not a very complicated technology the
cheapest we can produce that cost about
£300 400 depending on the situation and
this drone have all the possibility to
destroy a military T tank for example
that cost Millions it's
amazing it all depends on the master
ship of operator so we need together
with drone we must always put a good
well trade operator and we have in
Ukraine we have a special Academy we
don't involv in this we only produce
drones and buy drones and supplying
drones to the military but we have
special Center who trains this operators
because it depends on this because we
can have the best drones and if
operators will not be able to fully
operate these draws it will be useless
next I wanted to know why Ukraine has
become a war of drones everything has
started from the lack of artillery shell
so literally ukra for defense need to
counter like enemies attacks and uh the
artillery is the best but if we have
enough alter shells if we haven't enough
we just need to improvise we need
to have something to replace it and it
with drones uh like operators C
operators and uh with enough uh like
storage of the drones
enough units of the drones they can stop
they can stop this attack so the same
effect and moreover when you have uh a
lot of drones in the front line you can
you can completely cut out of the
logistic of uh the enemy forces so it's
very useful now a lot of countries
studying are studying the Ukraine's
experience are studying like how we we
can use like three four draws that cost
300 L to destroy and the latest Russian
tanks the most modern Russian tank with
all the equipment with all the defense
anti draw defense that cost millions of
dollars by hit of like one two three
four drones so it's crazy technology and
this is uh safe uh so you can use like
this operator that operates these drones
from a safe distance so this operator is
out of danger you just need to have
equipment you don't lose your people
it's very like very similar to The
Western wave War Russian wave War we
know like this meat meat attacks when
they like lose thousands of soldiers for
nothing but the Western Way means that
you need to be care of your army and fpv
Technology allows you to achieve
that and now the big question does
Vladimir think drones are here to stay
or are they only a stop Gap as we have a
lot of experience of using these drwes
we will use it anyway if we will have
enough Aly shelf will be much easier to
uh to fight back you know but we will
still use the drones because it's
amazing technology this technology
allows our soldiers to be safe and to
repel Russian attacks from a same
distance and Russ know that they the
most thing they afraid in the front line
and not like bullets are shells they
afraid of fpv drones because we have a
lot of good great guys who are operators
of these drones they can literally make
Miracles they can hand down I assume
that in the nearest future we will have
some kind of fpv tanks on the
battlefield because it's very important
to have like a mobile gun that can shoot
from a safe distance and we not like a
very
be upset about if you will lose it you
will upset about money not not about
human lives you know it's very important
and also this technology fpvs uh it's um
evolving completely so now we have the
self-guided systems on FP Dr that allows
uh to hit targets even if the connection
with the operator is lost so all the
next wordss that we have will contain
some kind of experience of
Ukraine every war because fpvs showed so
much Effectiveness so much Russian than
and Russian TOS were dist with this fpv
so for literally for Russian soldier uh
much greater chance to die from than Pro
from anything else and the front line
that's where this tape stops but we'll
be back soon to play you through another
episode of War on
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