Latest news with #Brovdi
Times
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
Drone chief fights psychological war with videos of dying Russians
The Ukrainian drone base hummed with activity, dozens of video screens providing real-time footage of the carnage on the battlefield. Amid the flurry of international diplomacy to try to end the war, it was business as usual for the drone operators and their commander. 'My first priority is to save the lives of my soldiers,' said Robert 'Madyar' Brovdi, commander of the 414th Strike UAV Brigade. 'The second is to provide them with everything necessary to wage war. The third, and most important one, is to kill as many of our enemies as possible.' His drone pilots sat behind computers, overseeing operations against President Putin's troops, including in Russia's Belgorod and Kursk border regions. On one screen, a Russian soldier looked up at a drone's camera as an explosive device hurtled towards him. Operators at the underground base, whose location is secret, work 12-hour shifts but rarely leave for the outside world. They eat at an on-site canteen and sleep in futuristic-looking white pods. Screens display enemy casualty figures numbering in the thousands, while downed Russian drones hang from the ceiling, like trophies of war. Pride of place is given to a battered Merlin reconnaissance drone, which Russia says has a range of almost 400 miles. The Times was taken to the base in a vehicle with blacked-out windows to ensure security. A successful businessman before Russia's invasion in 2022, Brovdi, 49, comes from Uzhhorod, a city in western Ukraine that is close to the Hungarian border. His military call-sign, 'Madyar', is Ukrainian for 'Magyar', the predominant ethnic group in Hungary, and his drone operators are commonly known as Madyar's Birds. Aside from relentless strikes against Putin's forces, Brovdi says he is waging a psychological war against Russia to make it harder to recruit fresh troops. When he is not issuing orders to his drone operators from one of his command centres, he posts videos on his social media accounts that depict in unflinching detail the final moments of Russian troops hunted down by attack drones. He has about half a million followers on Telegram, the messaging app, and his videos are often republished by Ukrainian media. In the videos, which Brovdi narrates, his 'birds' stalk the invading troops across the battlefield, pursuing them through the ruins of buildings before the remote pilots bring the hunt to its deadly conclusion. On other occasions, the kamikaze drones swoop in on their victims before they have even realised they are being targeted. A blast, a burst of camera static, and the death of another Russian soldier is recorded in the logbooks of the Ukrainian army. 'We promote these killings to cause moral and psychological damage to the enemy,' he said. 'Maybe some Russian Ivan will see these videos and think: 'Why the hell should I go there for money? They'll just kill me.' 'I'm trolling the Russians on my social media accounts. I say that we are the ones killing them in droves and that we are using plastic and metal devices called drones that we produced ourselves to do this. My drone operators were ordinary civilians [before the war]: athletes, musicians, lawyers and businesspeople who have shown the Russians what we are capable of.' Under a new scheme begun this week by Ukraine, frontline drone operators will be awarded points for verified strikes against Russian targets, ranging from six points for a dead soldier to 40 points for destroying a tank. They can use these points to buy battlefield technology for their units. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's digital minister, highlighted the effectiveness of Madyar's Birds and said the elite unit had already earned enough points for more than 1,100 drones, according to Politico. Given Brovdi's prominence as one of Ukraine's best-known commanders, it was a shock to many when he was reported to have warned last week that 'a million' soldiers would return from the front if they were unhappy with any deal signed by Kyiv to end the war. The statement was seized on by Russian propaganda as evidence of a potential rift between President Zelensky and his military. Brovdi had indeed issued the warning — but almost two and a half years ago, after the rout of the Russian army in the Kharkiv region, in a very different context. His comment then was made in response to some sections of Ukrainian society arguing that it would be better to sign a peace deal with Moscow than make use of western arms to try to drive Putin's demoralised army from the rest of the occupied territories. At the time, he was the commander of a territorial defence unit with just 27 soldiers. 'If I was to say this now, it would be a military offence, because I would be influencing the negotiation process,' Brovdi said. 'We all want this [peace]. My mum wants it — she hasn't seen me for three years.' Ukraine has said Russia is stepping up disinformation efforts to try to portray Kyiv as responsible for stalled peace talks. While Brovdi did not directly allege that the incident was orchestrated by Moscow, he said that it played straight into the hands of the Kremlin. 'There are certain forces in the country that don't work, to put it mildly, in the interests of the Ukrainian people,' he said. 'Perhaps they do this to try and harm Zelensky and to pit the government against the military.' About 90 per cent of Ukrainian drones are domestically produced, officials say. The scale of production means that even if the US stopped military assistance, Ukraine's forces would retain a powerful and battle-tested fleet of homegrown weapons. Brovdi claimed that every one of his pilots who has died in the war has killed about 1,000 Russian infantrymen. It was not possible to independently verify the figures. 'But our task is to exchange, as much as possible, the lives of these [Russian soldiers] for our drones, for our pieces of plastic and metal.'
Forbes
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
Ukraine's Interceptors Bring Down Biggest Russian Drone Yet
Ukraine's Birds of Magyar unit published video of one of their FPV interceptors hitting a Russian Forpost-R drone, the largest yet to fall victim in this way. It is a notable success -- the interceptor cost around $2k, the half-ton Forpost-R is more like $7 million – but it is also a symptom of another subtle shift in drone warfare. Forpost ('Outpost') is Russian-made, but is a licensed copy of the Israeli IAI Searcher II drone which first flew in 1998. The Russian version entered service in 2019, three years after Israel ceased to supply parts. The Russians reportedly redesigned the Forpost to use only locally made components. It is still an oddity that Russian employs the Israeli-descended Forpost next to its Iranian Shaheds, highlighting weaknesses in Russia's own drone design capability. Forpost-R drone, based on the IAI Searcher II Russian MoD Forpost is one of the largest Russian drones, with a wingspan of over 34 feet and a takeoff weight of more than 1100 pounds. It is designed to carry out a similar role to the Predator, long-endurance reconnaissance missions, with a flight endurance of more than 18 hours and a ceiling of 18,500 feet. It is a propeller driven, and normally cruises at 70-90 mph with a maximum speed of 120 mph. The Russians have adapted Forpost-R for attack missions, carrying a pair of KAB-20 laser-guided bombs. These weigh 45 pounds each and can carry out precision attacks on armored vehicles, bunkers and other targets. Forpost has rarely been seen in the Ukraine conflict, featuring mainly in Russian propaganda videos. One crashed in Belgorod in January 2023 and the Ukrainian air force downed one in April 2024 and another in July. But over the Easter weekend, Russian operators decided to carry out a strike using a Forpost armed with two bombs, in spite of the supposed ceasefire. And it ran into some determined defenders. Birds of Magyar, commanded by the celebrated Robert Brovdi (callsign 'Magyar') is one of Ukraine's most successful drone units. Brovdi originally created the unit as a volunteer drone platoon in 2022, since then a long string of successes has seen it grow to a company, a battalion, and now a full regiment. Much of this is due to the rapid assimilation and adoption of new drone technologies – including aerial interceptors to take down Russian drones. Brovdi posted the video on his Telegram channel, showing an FPV intercepting the Forpost-R, and with typical strong language. He says the FPV was piloted personally by the commander of the Birds of Magyar's interceptor unit, and the intercept took place at 13,000 feet. The video shows the FPV approaching the tail for Forpost before it cuts out, presumably when the FPV's warhead was triggered. Brovdi says the Forpost was damaged and they tracked it by radar oi where it came down over Russian territory; he regrets not being able to pick up an unusual trophy from the encounter. Russian Telegram channels quoted by Samuel Bendett naturally enough tell a different story. Claiming that the Forpost was not seriously damaged and that it landed safely. Naturally no evidence is presented for this. While the interception is a notable achievement in its own right, it does also have wider significance. It is not news that Ukrainian interceptors can operate above 10,000 feet, though this may be the highest strike officially recorded. Nor is it news that the interceptor teams are coordinated with the overall air defense systems, in particular the Sky Hunter radar. But the increasing speed, range and effectiveness of interceptors, coupled with the increased coverage and accuracy of detection systems, will make it increasingly difficult for anything to survive in unfriendly airspace. This comes at the same time as reports of yet another U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone being downed by Houthi forces. Like the Forpost/Searcher, the Reaper is a relatively low-speed, low-agility aircraft without stealth or other defensive aides, which has little chance of surviving in air-to-air combat of any sort. This is apparently the sixth Reaper to be lost since March. Reapers cost around $30 million each. As of 2024 the USAF had a total of 224, to the current attrition rate is an unsustainable 3% a month. The Houthis rely on surface-to-air missiles supplied by Iran, but any future opponent is likely to have access to low-cost interceptors like those seen in Ukraine. It is notable that Ukraine's own fleet of Bayraktar drones, large craft somewhere between Forpost and Reaper, have stayed very much in the background. After early successes in the strike role, they were pulled back as Russian tactical air defence improved. Birds of Magyar also operate small reconnaissance drones, and report losing 228 of them in April. Each drone survives an average of 45 flights and costs a few thousand dollars, making them 'attritable' assets: losses are expected and there is a steady flow of replacements. Going forward, larger drones may need to be better protected, which will add to the cost, or made more affordable -- we have already looked at how the U.S. could replace Reapers with low cost alternatives – or whether they will become motherships, remaining at long range and launching small attritable or expendable drones into enemy territory.
Forbes
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
Ukraine's Elite Drone Is A Lethal, Fast Growing Tech Start Up
Robert Brovdi, callsignj Magyar, commander of the highly successful 'Birds of Magyar' drone unit, ... More now expanded to regiment size Ukraine's legendary 'Birds of Magyar' is one of the most successful drone units of all time. Under its charismatic commander Robert Brovdi, callsign Magyar ( 'Madyar' in Ukrainian, meaning Hungarian), the unit has grown in three years from a platoon into a regiment destroying vast numbers of Russian forces each month. This rate of growth is extraordinary in a military unit and looks more like a tech start up --and maybe that is a better description of what Birds of Magyar really is. The unit has become famous on the internet, and compilation videos of drone strikes go viral, aided by Brovdi's trademark commentaries with catchphrases 'Jagga jagga!' and 'Bada-boom!' highlighting effective attacks. Magyar's success is not about presentation. They numbers show this one unit is contributing a significant fraction of Ukraine's combat power. Magyar has achieved this by using the skills of a tech entrepreneur in a military context. Brovdi's appearance, with a shaggy, greying beard makes him look like the guy in a biker bar you least want to annoy. His language is harsh, describing the Russians as 'hunting worms,' pulling no punches in his online pieces describing the current situation and what needs to be done. But beneath the Dark Ages warrior exterior is an keen grasp of a new type of warfare. Brovdi has been way ahead of the technology curve all the way. Previously a successful businessman, Brovdi joined the volunteer territorial defence as a foot soldier in 2022 at the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. He became platoon commander and, frustrated by trench warfare and in violation of the rules at the time, bought and flew a commercial drone to get a better view of the battlefield. Before long he had acquired more drones and established Birds of Magyar as a drone reconnaissance platoon. The unit soon started making their own drone bombs and by March 2023, Birds of Magyar had grown from a reconnaissance platoon into a strike drone company. Initially within territorial defense and then as part of the regular army in the 59th Motorized Infantry Brigade. Brovdi demonstrates an early improvised drone bomb In January 2024 the unit expanded again and became an independent Marine Corps drone battalion, taking the name of 14th Strike UAV Battalion. In December 2024 the battalion was expanded again into a full regiment, with a further tripling of the number of personnel. And all along, at the same time as being engaged in high-intensity conflict, Birds of Magyar has adopted and adapted new technology. They were among the first to make their own drone munitions, to use FPV drones, heavy bomber multicopters, to experiment with FPV carriers , to fly interceptor drones, to use flying relay drones, to carry out minelaying by drone and to use FPVs with fiber-optic controls, With all of these things, they have managed to find the best way of using the technology, optimized it – often by building or modifying their own hardware – and scale it up to make a real impact on the battlefield. As well as flying reconnaissance and attack missions, Birds of Magyar also has its own interceptor unit, a unit for experimental unmanned systems and a unit for the development and another for implementation of new systems. The unit operates its own production facilities for drones and drone munitions, and carries out its own pilot training. The Ukrainian government operates a system which turns success into fuel for further success. As Brovdi himself explained in a 2024 post, the attack drone business has been gamified. The process resembles a video game where scoring points allows a player to upgrade their warrior, mecha or spacecraft to take on successively bigger opponents. A successful FPV strike causes a Russian tank to detonate, throwing the turret high into the air Kills on specific targets which can be verified earn a drone operator points. For example, destroying a top-end Russian T-90M tank earns a reward equivalent to about $10,000. This comes in the form of points which can be spent on new drones. This process rewards the high performers and ensures that drones go to the units which make best use of them. Brovdi compared his unit to a business In an interview with Forbes in November 2022. Then a platoon commander, Brovdi said: 'It's a complete business cycle, where you just improve the product every time.' In previous wars such a system might have led to inflated claims, like the controversial U.S. 'body counts' in Vietnam or the Russian system in which commanders regularly lie their superiors about their progress, the Ukrainian have a strict audit process. But every drone strike is automatically recorded by its own camera and can be cross-indexed with Ukraine's Delta battlefield information system which merges data from drones, satellites and other sources. Follow-up drones carry out damage assessment and kill claims are strictly audited. 'I am not claiming this is 100% precise, but it is a structured assessment that, in my opinion, reliably reflects trends,' writes Yurii Butusov in a piece on looking at the drone kill statistics for January. 'The vast majority—99%—of this data is accurate.' An efficient system for crediting kills means that Ukraine can channel resources to the units that are doing most with them. Butusov's main complaint is that currently this channel is only available to a minority of drone units and needs to be widened out. But Birds of Magyar have shown how well it can work. Combat statistics for March 2025 show an impressive kill rate Birds of Magyar release a monthly video compilation of their strikes. These days there are so many it can only include highlights; even five minutes of solid end-to-end explosions can only include a fraction of their total activities. The videos are split into sections showing strikes on armored vehicles, targeting artillery, air-to-air intercepts, night bomber missions, destruction of buildings, and many, many strikes on individual Russian soldiers. There are a lot of interesting statistics in the monthly scorecard which shows hundreds of vehicles destroyed . But the biggest one is the headline figure of almost 22,000 combat sorties, of which 11,691 were strike missions. These hit 5,334 targets, destroying 1,848 of them. This suggests that roughly 50% of attack missions damaged a target, and 16% scored a kill. Although things are complicated where multiple drones hit a target in succession, this suggests a high hit rate compared, say, to artillery shells or ATGMs Looking at the last couple of months, Birds of Magyar account for around 7% of the total number of armored vehicles destroyed by the Ukrainian military as a whole. And as Butusov notes, there are other similarly successful drone units. In essence, this is a unit which destroys its own weight in Russian forces on a monthly basis and just keep growing. And the next step could be the most significant yet. The next stage of expansion will see Birds of Magyar integrated into a strategic drone network. In February, Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced the "Drone Line" project would integrate drone and ground forces into a single strike system to detect and target everything at ranges of 6-9 miles , destroying Russian assault before they can get close to Ukrainian positions. This would involve further expansion of existing drone units. Rusten specifically mentioned the 20th Separate K-2 Regiment, the 429th Achilles Regiment, the 427th RAROH Regiment, the Phoenix Regiment as well as 'the 414th Magyar's Birds Brigade.' President Zelensky had a face-to-face meeting with the unit commanders including Brovdi in February. The drone line will see drone integrated with a variety of sensors plus artillery, rockets and other assets, and the idea is that it will extend across the entire front with Russia. This might seem ambitious. But looking at Birds of Magyar's rate of growth so far, it looks more like a logical next step.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Yahoo
Ukraine Discloses New Method To Defeat Russian Fiber-Optic-Controlled FPV Drones
A storied Ukrainian military drone unit said it has developed a way to counter an increasingly deadly weapon — Russian first-person view (FPV) drones that use fiber optic cables instead of radio waves to connect with their controllers, making them impervious to jamming and other forms of electronic warfare. The Magyar Birds Brigade claims it has devised a system using mobile radars to provide early warning for incoming FPV drones several kilometers away. Once they detect the threat, the unit then launches its own drones to intercept the Russian ones before they can reach their targets. '… the first options for [the] detection and destruction [of Russian FPV fiber optic guided drones] exist and are already being used' by the brigade, claimed its commander, Robert Brovdi, who uses the callsign 'Magyar.' Brovdi posted a video on his Telegram channel purporting to show one of his drones destroying a Russian fiber-optic-guided FPV drone. Notable is the large spool on the back of the Russian drone. It contains an extremely thin but strong wire linking the drone with its controller. This capability has turned an already fearsome weapon into something much harder to defeat. Because their communications are not degraded when flying very low to the ground or even in structures, they can also hunt just feet off the ground and into enclosed areas as long as their data cable stays intact. While Brovdi touts the system, he does not specify what kind of mobile radar his unit is using. It is likely a microwave radar system, like those that operate in Ku-band for counter drone applications. The radar's short wavelength is optimized to sport small, relatively slow-moving drones. The drawback is that they have very limited range measured in just a handful of miles. So these sensors are great for detecting and tracking drones, but they don't provide much early warning and craft can move in and out of their detection range quickly. Still, if one of these radars can be pushed forward to the front, it could provide critical detection of incoming FPV drones over a defined area and a fix on where a rapidly reacting counter-FPV drone can find it. The Magyar Birds' system is the latest development in what has become a leap-frogging duel between Ukrainian and Russian FPV drones and countermeasures. As the FPV drones became more prominent on the battlefield, they now rival the importance of traditional artillery. Both sides have also been using drones to take out other drones. This capability first emerged in the skies over Ukraine in October 2022 when a Ukrainian Mavic drone swatted down a Russian one. One of the first such battles was captured in this video you can see below. WW1-style duel. Ukrainan Mavic-drone, which we have delivered to one of the airborne units in Donetsk region, destroyes russian opponent. Amazing!Pls support our Armed Forces: — Serhiy Prytula (@serhiyprytula) October 13, 2022 Last summer, videos emerged of Ukraine using its FPV drones to take out larger, more expensive Russian surveillance and strike drones. Today, Ukraine has multiple types of drones dedicated to hunting other drones, and Russia is developing and deploying similar systems. You can see one of those encounters in the following video. Interception of the Russian UAV kamikaze "Lancet" using an FPV drone with air detonation. The work of the "Signum" unit of the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade. — MilitaryNewsUA (@front_ukrainian) June 19, 2024 FPV drones hunting fiber-optic FPV drones in part takes advantage of the latter's greatest advantage and turns it into a vulnerability. While the cables prevent them from being jammed, the extra weight of the large spools needed to operate over long distances slows them down and makes them less maneuverable. That's something the Magyar Birds noted in the video the unit posted. In his Telegram post, Brovdi urged Ukraine to rush mobile radars capable of detecting small drones to the front lines. 'The army must promptly and massively re-equip with mobile versions of radars every 2-4 km of the front line and with calculations of conventional FPV fighters to destroy enemy FPVs intercepted by mobile radars on fiber optics,' he suggested. These same radars are in extreme demand around the globe as the threat from drones even in peaceful areas explodes. They can even be found on super yachts. These same systems provide awareness of drone activities around military bases and other critical installations, and many of these types of locales still lack them. It's also worth noting that these sensors, especially commercial grade ones, are vulnerable to detection and attack themselves as their emissions can be detected, triangulated and rapidly targeted. While deploying such sensors on land vehicles, from crewed to uncrewed ones, could help in terms of survivability, these systems will still be highly vulnerable. Given that Ukraine is fighting across a 600-mile front in its own country plus the territory it is battling for in Russia's Kursk region, it seems at best this could be used as a point-defense system to defend key areas or to help pave the way for limited advances, at least for now. Still, their need points to a near future where advanced counter-drone sensors will be absolutely critical wherever troops are present, and especially on an active battlefield. Contact the author: howard@
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Yahoo
Ukraine Discloses New Method To Defeat Russian Fiber-Optic-Controlled FPV Drones
A storied Ukrainian military drone unit said it has developed a way to counter an increasingly deadly weapon — Russian first-person view (FPV) drones that use fiber optic cables instead of radio waves to connect with their controllers, making them impervious to jamming and other forms of electronic warfare. The Magyar Birds Brigade claims it has devised a system using mobile radars to provide early warning for incoming FPV drones several kilometers away. Once they detect the threat, the unit then launches its own drones to intercept the Russian ones before they can reach their targets. '…the first options for [the] detection and destruction [of Russian FPV fiber optic guided drones] exist and are already being used' by the brigade, claimed its commander, Robert Brovdi, who uses the callsign 'Magyar.' Brovdi posted a video on his Telegram channel purporting to show one of his drones destroying a Russian fiber-optic-guided FPV drone. Notable is the large spool on the back of the Russian drone. It contains an extremely thin but strong wire linking the drone with its controller. This capability has turned an already fearsome weapon into something much harder to defeat. Because their communications are not degraded when flying very low to the ground or even in structures, they can also hunt just feet off the ground and into enclosed areas as long as their data cable stays intact. While Brovdi touts the system, he does not specify what kind of mobile radar his unit is using. It is likely a microwave radar system, like those that operate in Ku-band for counter drone applications. The radar's short wavelength is optimized to sport small, relatively slow-moving drones. The drawback is that they have very limited range measured in just a handful of miles. So these sensors are great for detecting and tracking drones, but they don't provide much early warning and craft can move in and out of their detection range quickly. Still, if one of these radars can be pushed forward to the front, it could provide critical detection of incoming FPV drones over a defined area and a fix on where a rapidly reacting counter-FPV drone can find it. The Magyar Birds' system is the latest development in what has become a leap-frogging duel between Ukrainian and Russian FPV drones and countermeasures. As the FPV drones became more prominent on the battlefield, they now rival the importance of traditional artillery. Both sides have also been using drones to take out other drones. This capability first emerged in the skies over Ukraine in October 2022 when a Ukrainian Mavic drone swatted down a Russian one. One of the first such battles was captured in this video you can see below. WW1-style duel. Ukrainan Mavic-drone, which we have delivered to one of the airborne units in Donetsk region, destroyes russian opponent. Amazing!Pls support our Armed Forces: — Serhiy Prytula (@serhiyprytula) October 13, 2022 Last summer, videos emerged of Ukraine using its FPV drones to take out larger, more expensive Russian surveillance and strike drones. Today, Ukraine has multiple types of drones dedicated to hunting other drones, and Russia is developing and deploying similar systems. You can see one of those encounters in the following video. Interception of the Russian UAV kamikaze "Lancet" using an FPV drone with air detonation. The work of the "Signum" unit of the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade. — MilitaryNewsUA (@front_ukrainian) June 19, 2024 FPV drones hunting fiber-optic FPV drones in part takes advantage of the latter's greatest advantage and turns it into a vulnerability. While the cables prevent them from being jammed, the extra weight of the large spools needed to operate over long distances slows them down and makes them less maneuverable. That's something the Magyar Birds noted in the video the unit posted. In his Telegram post, Brovdi urged Ukraine to rush mobile radars capable of detecting small drones to the front lines. 'The army must promptly and massively re-equip with mobile versions of radars every 2-4 km of the front line and with calculations of conventional FPV fighters to destroy enemy FPVs intercepted by mobile radars on fiber optics,' he suggested. These same radars are in extreme demand around the globe as the threat from drones even in peaceful areas explodes. They can even be found on super yachts. These same systems provide awareness of drone activities around military bases and other critical installations, and many of these types of locales still lack them. It's also worth noting that these sensors, especially commercial grade ones, are vulnerable to detection and attack themselves as their emissions can be detected, triangulated and rapidly targeted. While deploying such sensors on land vehicles, from crewed to uncrewed ones, could help in terms of survivability, these systems will still be highly vulnerable. Given that Ukraine is fighting across a 600-mile front in its own country plus the territory it is battling for in Russia's Kursk region, it seems at best this could be used as a point-defense system to defend key areas or to help pave the way for limited advances, at least for now. Still, their need points to a near future where advanced counter-drone sensors will be absolutely critical wherever troops are present, and especially on an active battlefield. Contact the author: howard@
