Unique Ukrainian Drone Bomber Mission Rescues Prisoners
Still from the drone video showing Ukrainian captives led by a Russian soldier under trees
Ukrainian drone operators carried out an unusual rescue mission recently, using precision strikes to free three soldiers who had been taken captive. A video of the operation makes interesting viewing, showing how the drone operators carried out a mission remotely which would previously have needed boots on the ground.
Clearly this particular operation was cherry-picked for propaganda purposes and shows a 'best case' outcome, but it gives a valuable glimpse into the current state of the art of multi-drone close-quarter action.
The mission is described in a news release from Ukraine's Border Guards, credited to Roman Tkach, press officer for the Sumy border detachment. He states it took place 'the other day' in the Sumy region.
'Border patrol operators of reconnaissance drones discovered an enemy group with three captured Ukrainian defenders,' according to Tkach.
The video from a recon drone shows the group moving through light forest in single file, with three Russian soldiers leading, followed by the three prisoners, with two more Russians bringing up the rear. Because of the spring foliage individuals can only be seen intermittently through the greenery. The drones have thermal imagers as well as daylight cameras, and these can see through leaves to some degree, but cannot distinguish uniforms or whether somneone is armed.
'To help the border guards, to intercept and destroy the enemy, several UAV crews of the 1st Separate Tank Siversk Brigade immediately flew out,' states Tkach.
Thermal imaging view as a drone-dropped grenade falls towards a Russian sheltering under a tree
The drone operators carried out a joint operation, with the Border Guards scout drones guiding the Tank Brigade team's light bombers. These appear to be Mavic-type drones armed with hand grenades.
'They managed to separate the enemy from Ukrainian soldiers and force the enemy to flee with the help of [grenade] drops. The drops were so accurate that the enemy had no chance, he left the prisoners and retreated,' states Tkach.
We see six grenades dropped. The time taken to fall, of 4-5 seconds, suggests they are being dropped from 250-400 feet, and land a few feet from the aim point. One Russian appears to be injured. While hand grenades like the F1 and the M67 were commonly dropped from drones early on in the war they have now been largely superseded by purpose-made munitions.
As soon as the grenades start coming down, the men below start running and taking cover. At some point (1:30 on this video) the captives make a break for it and run away, presumably towards Ukrainian lines.
A Russian soldier holds on to a tree to avoid drone bombs
We get a zoomed-in close-up from vertically above a Russian solder, who is clinging to a tree (at 2:16 in this video). He knows that the trees gives some cover from observation, and the branches can deflect or prematurely explode falling grenades. When the drone drops a grenade, he must hear it coming down through the tree, as he runs away and escapes just before it hits.
The Russians are now separated from their prisoners, and we a different type of drone in action, a heavy bomber or Baba Yaga, normally flown at night. This has a munitions display showing how many of its weapons have been used and the falling bombs are visibly larger, being converted mortar bombs or purpose-designed antipersonnel weapons.
Thermal imaging view from a from the heavy drone bomber during the rescue
'The Russians were destroyed,' claims Tkach. It is not possible to confirm this from the video, but given that the survivors are being pursued by several drones which do not seem to have any difficulty following them, it is plausible.
Meanwhile the escapees are being led to safety by a reconnaissance drone. We can see the navigation lights being turned on and off as a 'follow me' signal, and the soldiers are guided along a path to a wooden bridge. This technique has previously been used the other way, with 'non-contact surrenders' of Russians mediated by drones leading them to Ukrainian lines.
Drone operations often require an extended planning process with targets precisely located and units assigned specific roles well in advance. Given the timing, this one seems to have been carried out on the fly, with at least four drones of three different types of drone operated by two different units. This suggests a high degree of professionalism and co-ordination.
The speed of the drones also means they were able to intercept the moving group when a ground-based unit would have been too slow.
The escaped Ukrainians (at top left) are led to safety
The Russians clearly lack effective counter-drone armament. They do not even try to shoot down the drones bombing them. This seems to be typical. Hitting a small drone with an automatic rifle is challenging and makes the shooter an obvious target. A shotgun may be useful against FPVs at close range, but not so much against a bomber, especially through foliage.
Portable 'trench jammers' effective against FPV attack drones typically have a range of 100 yards of less. That is enough to make the FPV operator lose control of their drone and force a miss. But it is not effective against a drone which can drop bombs from an altitude of more than 300 feet. More powerful jammers are available, but typically too heavy to be portable, especially with enough batteries for prolonged operations.
Russian forces also have some radio-frequency anti drone guns, but these are rare, and their effectiveness is questionable. There is more than one video of a Russian pointing such a weapon at a drone with no effect right up until impact.
Ukrainian DJI Mavic 3 used as a bomber with two improvised munitions
On the other hand, anti-personnel drone bombing is, so to speak, a matter or hit-and-miss. It takes a lot of grenades to ensure a kill, but then this has always been true. The U.S. produced more than 50 million hand grenades in WWII, many times the number of German soldiers killed.
FPVs may be more effective than 'drop drones' on a per-sortie basis, but drones which can return again and again may be more effective over the long run. Ukrainian drone unit Birds of Magyar say that their bombers carry out an average of 69 sorties before being lost. They can hit targets with greater precision than mortars or artillery and can keep attacking for as long as they have ammunition.
This was a bold mission which could easily have gone wrong. There are numerous cases of Russians summarily executing Ukrainian PoWs, and after coming under attack the captors might have decided that shooting the prisoners was safer than guarding them. But the Ukrainians made the right call and rescued the captives.
Ukraine is looking to increasing the number of drones and robots at the front line, keeping their human operators back out of danger. This example shows that even with existing technology, complex and demanding missions can be successfully executed from a distance.
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