Ukrainian forces turn to FPV drones in fight against Russian surveillance
Ukrainians are experiencing significant difficulties combating Russian surveillance drones using anti-aircraft systems, which are too few to meet their needs. The solution is expected to be anti-aircraft FPV drones.
In the face of the ongoing conflict with Russia, Ukraine is seeking innovative solutions to combat Russian reconnaissance drones. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, highlighted the critical shortage of resources, including the minimal availability of short-range anti-aircraft systems, underscoring the necessity of finding alternative defence methods. According to Defence-Uua, electronic warfare systems and FPV drones are increasingly playing a major role in the solutions being employed.
These have proven effective in neutralising hostile drones, such as the "Orlan" or "Zala." One of the most interesting cases of intercepting a Russian drone is the achievement of pilots from the 93rd Independent Mechanised Brigade "Kholodnyi Yar," who managed to shoot down a Russian Lancet-3 drone with an FPV drone.
These constructs can attack targets even 16 kilometres behind the front line, and many AHS Krab self-propelled howitzers have been victims. Shooting down such drones is difficult because self-propelled anti-aircraft systems like the Gepard are few, and handheld anti-aircraft sets like the American FIM-92 Stinger or the Polish PPZR Piorun are also not abundant.
As Ukrainians admit, Western manufacturers do not always keep up with production, and it is somewhat regrettable to "waste" a missile worth up to £700,000 only on a drone. For this reason, more efficient methods are being sought.
Combating drones in a budget-friendly way — own counter-drones or even light aircraft
It turns out that quite good results can be achieved by using our own FPV drones to ram Russian reconnaissance drones. Such situations have already occurred, and Ukrainians mention that such an achievement is possible at a distance of up to 6 kilometres. Considering an FPV drone, which costs less than £800, the result is remarkable.
The second method involves using old Yak-52 planes with a two-person crew, in which the passenger attempts to shoot down the drone with a machine gun. These scenes are straight from WWI, but the results in the form of downed drones speak for themselves.
