Latest news with #FPVdrones
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Uncrewed Boats Launch FPV Drone Strike On Key Russian Radars Located On Crimea's Southern Tip
In a new video, Ukrainian first-person view (FPV) drones are seen dodging fire and attacking several Russian radar stations in Crimea. A Russian Navy vessel is also seen being attacked off the coast of the occupied peninsula. The FPVs were launched by uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) before flying low over the water to reach their targets. They were operated by the Defense Intelligence Directorate's (GUR) 'Phantom' drone unit, the directorate claimed. It was the latest in a series of such attacks launched from USVs, also known as drone boats, that began in March. You can see the new GUR video below. Ukraine's GUR carried out a series of drone strikes on Russian air defense radars and other high value targets in Crimea. — Preston Stewart (@prestonstew_) August 7, 2025 In this attack, the FPV drones appear to have dodged significant five, which is claimed to have originated from Pantsir-S1 air defense systems on the coast. The interceptors were launched from the shore and are seen exploding near the FPVs, with at least some of them not taking down their targets, the incoming drones. The video then cuts to a drone flying into a prized 1L119 Nebo-SVU phased-array early warning radar station. Another segment shows the dome-encased system in flames. Multiple drones are seen flying into multiple protective radar domes, using a layered attack to puncture the domes and then destroy what is inside. 'After serious losses of air defense facilities on the peninsula, caused in particular by the GUR 'Phantoms,' Russian occupiers in Crimea began hiding their expensive military facilities in dome structures,' GUR said on Telegram. At about the 40-second mark, the video purporedly shows one of the FPV drones being fired on by an Su-30SM Flanker. The Flanker in this attack actually comes into view later in the video. These fighter aircraft are now heavily active in trying to counter drone boat infiltrations near the Crimean coast. As we were the first to report in May, a Ukrainian drone boat armed with AIM-9X Sidewinders downed two Flankers flying over the Black Sea. The next target hit by the FPV drones was a Project 02510, or BK-16 high-speed assault boat. Though GUR claims the boat was destroyed, the video doesn't show the resulting damage. The video then showed a drone striking the base of a Podlyot K-1 radar, but again, no destruction was seen. A few seconds later, the video shows an FPV drone approaching a 96L6E Cheese Board air search and acquisition radar. In the lower right corner, a Russian soldier is seen casually walking until he notices the drone, at which point he starts to run. The last attack seen in the video takes place against an air defense base Russia set up on Ai-Petri, a 4,000-foot-high peak a mile north of Crimea's southern shore. While the only location GUR specified was Ai-Petri. However, open-source trackers claim to have geolocated the other attacks near Olenivka on the westernmost part of the peninsula. The video could show one single attack or several; we just don't know. We've reached out to GUR for comment. GUR Prymary targets radars hidden in defunct radar domes – Crimea 45.34554, 32.5211 Nebo-SVU (0:31) 45.34646, 32.5220 Podlet-K1 (0:54)@ — imi (m) (@moklasen) August 7, 2025 Regardless of how many attacks are seen in the video, it makes sense for GUR to target these parts of Crimea. As we have previously reported, taking out radars and air defense systems opens holes in Russia's air defense overlay of the peninsula and the northwestern Black Sea. This could go a long way to ensuring the survivability of standoff strike weapons, like Storm Shadow and SCALP-EG, and other attacks, such as those by long-range kamikaze drones. Ukraine has been systemically targeting these sites for years now. But in this case, Ai-Petri is on Crimea's southern tip. Going after these facilities could be critical to executing long-range drone strikes across the Black Sea, to Russia's western shore that sits along it. We have seen a huge uptick in long-range drone strikes on this area, including in Russia's coveted resort town of Sochi. Overnight, Ukraine continued its new summer drone strike campaign, successfully hitting a Russian fuel depot at Sochi International airport. Seen here, a Ukrainian AN-196 Liutyi flies into an actively burning Rosneft tank farm. — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) August 3, 2025 A Ukrainian AN-196 'Liutyi' Long-Range One-Way Attack Drone passes at low altitude over Sochi during tonight's large-scale drone attack against infrastructure targets in Southern Russia. — OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 24, 2025 Another advantage of using FPV drones for these attacks is that they are harder to defend against using traditional air defense systems like those being targeted, as you can see in the video. Unlike the front lines, where FPV drones are a ubiquitous threat, Russia wouldn't have the same level of countermeasure systems deployed in Crimea to fend off FPV drones. Even with those systems, they are a vexing threat. Launching FPV drones from USVs provides Ukraine with some important advantages. This method greatly extends the reach of these swift, highly maneuverable weapons, enabling them to hit targets that often require more expensive long-range strike weapons that are far fewer in number and are more vulnerable to air defenses. Though continuing to lose ground to Russia, especially in the eastern part of the country, attacks like this show that Ukraine's asymmetric warfare capabilities remain difficult to defend against. 'The demilitarization of temporarily occupied Crimea continues,' GUR declared. Contact the author: howard@
Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Times
How Ukraine uses fishing nets to protect troops from Russian drones
T he road in northern Ukraine was covered from above and on both sides with thick netting that stretched for miles, towards Russia. It was just one of a number of anti-drone 'tunnels' that Ukraine is constructing to protect soldiers and civilians in frontline regions. The netting is a low-tech solution to the first-person-view [FPV] drones that have transformed the nature of the war in Ukraine and, perhaps, warfare itself. Cheap FPV drones packed with explosives are manned remotely by pilots and provide real-time video feeds, allowing them to be directed with deadly accuracy against soldiers, as well as military vehicles and equipment. They are used by both Russian and Ukrainian forces and have created a vast 'kill zone' where nothing can move without attracting the attention of swarms of kamikaze drones.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Could Ukraine's Homegrown Drones Industry Put American Defense Contractors Out of Business?
Key Points Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wants to equip all U.S. Army units with cheap, first-person view (FPV) military drones. Ukraine has become a leader in the production of cheap, FPV drones. Now, a "mega deal" could be in the works, worth up to $30 billion for Ukraine to sell drones to America in exchange for missiles. These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires › On July 10, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced a sea change in U.S. defense policy. More than a decade ago, America pioneered the wide-scale use of military drones, flying Predator drones first on surveillance, then strike missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the decades since, U.S. dominance of this groundbreaking defense technology eroded, to the extent that "global military drone production skyrocketed over the last three years," while the U.S. all but stood still. Now, said the SecDef, it's finally time to "support our industrial base, reform acquisition, and field new technology" to equip the U.S. military "with the lethal small drones the modern battlefield requires." All of which sound like fine ideas. But over the past few days, a new question has emerged: Will our defense base actually get to build these drones -- or might they end up getting built by someone other than American defense contractors? Uncle Sam is looking for a few good drones As a first step to upping America's drone game, Hegseth directed that the Pentagon open a competition to buy 10,000 Purpose-Built, Attritable Systems (also known as kamikaze, one-way attack, first-person view, or FPV drones) for under $2,000 apiece, and to get the purchase done within 12 months. One week later, the Pentagon hosted a demonstration of 18 American-made drone prototypes that might fit the bill. (Or might not. Most American drones manufactured by AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV) and Kratos Defense and Technology (NASDAQ: KTOS), or even Palantir (NASDAQ: PLTR) or still-private defense contractor Anduril, after all, are reported to cost "tens of thousands of dollars" each.) This might complicate Pentagon plans. On the one hand, the Defense Department wants to support American defense contractors. But on the other hand, it wants to buy drones cheap. So what's the solution? While American companies figure out a way to build the number of drones the Pentagon needs, for a price the Pentagon will be willing to pay, another country with hard-won experience manufacturing affordable, expendable FPV drones may be able to step in and fill the gap. I'm talking about Ukraine. "I'll trade you drones for missiles" The past three years have given Ukraine a lot of experience in the development and use of FPV drones in real-world conditions -- and given Ukrainian defense companies a lot of experience building drones on a budget. The country's expertise in drone warfare became especially evident in June, when a Ukrainian operation dubbed Operation Spiderweb saw 117 FPV drones deployed within Russia to damage or destroy dozens of high-value Russian military aircraft on the ground. It was both a military and a PR coup for Ukraine, and probably instrumental in the latest development in this drone saga, reported just last week: According to the Kyiv Independent newspaper, President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are currently discussing a "mega deal" that would see Ukraine trade FPV drones (which it's good at producing) for long-range missiles (which it struggles to produce). And the price should certainly be right. Reliable sources have Ukraine building basic FPV drones for as little as $400 -- and much more advanced "fixed-wing interceptor" drones for air defense for just a fraction of the cost of even the cheapest American military drones: $5,000. Details of the mega deal remain in flux. It might be a straight trade of Ukrainian drones for American missiles. Or the deal could take the form of offsetting purchases, with Ukraine spending money to buy U.S. missiles, and the U.S. turning around and using some of that money to buy Ukrainian drones. An even more intriguing option, suggests The Independent, would be for Ukraine to "share its drone expertise [and technology] with the U.S.," helping teach American defense companies to produce effective FPV drones on the cheap, and perhaps taking a license fee in exchange. This might take the form of joint ventures with American defense giants as well. As an example, Zelensky announced Thursday last week that Ukraine has inked a "50/50 partnership" with the Danish government to produce Ukrainian drones in Denmark. And here's the real kicker: Zelensky says a similar agreement with the U.S. is already "in place," and could be worth anywhere from $10 billion to $30 billion in total value. What this means for investors Thirty billion dollars sounds like a big deal, albeit it's not clear how the math would work. Are we talking $30 billion in missile sales to Ukraine, and another $30 billion in drone sales to the U.S.? Or $10 billion in missile sales, offset by $20 billion in drone sales? Vice versa? Or something entirely different? The one thing that is clear, is that if this deal is "in place," it's a deal a lot of big U.S. defense contractors will be interested in, and in all sorts of ways. Beyond drone-focused contractors like AeroVironment and Kratos, many of the larger defense contractors, which have struggled to break into the drones business in a big way, might welcome finding a side door into the business through licensing technology from Ukraine. And even those that don't could benefit financially on the other side of the exchange, building U.S. missiles for sale to Ukraine in exchange for Ukrainian drones. With potentially tens of billions of dollars up for grabs, this is a "mega deal" worth watching closely. Trump's Tariffs Could Create $1.5 Trillion AI Gold Rush The Motley Fool's analysts are tracking a massive shift in U.S. tech. Over $1.5 trillion is already flowing into infrastructure, AI, and advanced manufacturing… and the number keeps climbing. Following a major tariff policy shift, a new AI Gold Rush is taking shape, and we think . It builds the tech infrastructure that Apple, OpenAI, and others suddenly can't live without. We just released a full write-up on this under-the-radar stock — and why now might be the exact moment to move. Continue » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends AeroVironment and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Could Ukraine's Homegrown Drones Industry Put American Defense Contractors Out of Business? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
BBC News
02-08-2025
- BBC News
They escaped Ukraine's frontlines. The sound of drones followed them
In a cramped apartment in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Pavlo, a 30-year-old drone operator who had recently returned from the front, unzipped a black case about the size of a pizza box. Inside, there was a four-rotor drone he intended to fly around the pressed buttons on the control unit and pushed the antenna to different positions. Nothing happened. "Sorry, not today," he said, with a smile. The unit looked fine, but something was the front, Pavlo, who asked to be identified only by his first name, was a pilot of first-person view (FPV) drones. These small, highly manoeuvrable drones have front-facing cameras that allow them to be flown remotely. Over the past year or so, bomb-laden FPVs have become ubiquitous on the frontlines in Ukraine, replacing the heavy weapons that characterised the war's first FPVs chase armoured vehicles, hunt infantry units through treelines and stalk individual soldiers to their deaths. "You cannot hide from the FPV, and to run is useless," Pavlo said. "You try to be as calm as possible, and you pray."Even when an FPV is too high to see clearly, or hidden behind foliage, soldiers can hear its distinctive, high-pitched whine."Bzzzzzzzzzz," Pavlo said. "You are being hunted." After more than a year at the front, Pavlo has returned home to the Kyiv apartment he shares with his wife. But the sound of the drones has followed him. Everyday mechanical tools like lawnmowers, motorcycles and air conditioners remind him of the FPVs that hunted him and his unit mates. And nature is not an escape. Pavlo can no longer hear the sound of bees and flies buzzing near him without a creeping panic. "I don't like to go into nature anymore and hear this sound, because it reminds me so hard of the drones," he associated with sound is not new – generations of soldiers have been affected by sudden noises after returning to civilian life. But as the war in Ukraine has evolved into a conflict driven by drone technology, the trauma has evolved with it."Over the past year, the majority of patients – if they are not physically wounded – have mental health injuries as a result of being under drone activity," said Dr Serhii Andriichenko, chief psychiatrist at Kyiv's military hospital. "We call this droneophobia."The first trial of its kind: A Russian solder takes the standKill Russian soldiers, win points: Ukraine's new drone schemeFamilies of the missing fear peace will not bring them homeMany thousands of men are now returning from the front like Pavlo, with acute stress disorders associated with the sounds of drones, Dr Andriichenko said. The droneophobia can be triggered by an array of ordinary urban sounds – small motorcycles and scooters, lawnmowers, air conditioners – anything mechanical that whirrs."If it's a moped or a lawnmower, my first thought is that it might be a drone," said another returned frontline soldier, Savur, who lost his arm in an FPV drone the front line the drones were a "permanent sound", said Savur, who in accordance with military protocol asked to be identified by his callsign. "The sound of a shell lasts just a few seconds, but the sound of the drone is there most of the time," he said."You can lay in your position, in your foxhole, and listen to it for hours. I remember that sound all of the time."Or sometimes the problem was the opposite – silence. "Silence is always the start," Dr Andriichenko, the psychiatrist, said. "When the soldiers go on rotation to combat positions, they start listening carefully to make sure there are no drones. There is constant tension, constant fear. They are always looking up." In many cases, that constant sense of tension has not been dispelled by the return to civilian life. Soldiers have been observed suddenly switching off lights at home, moving away from windows and hiding under if a soldier is seen for treatment, Dr Andriichenko describes how he often has no memory of any trigger sound, but his wife or family member will reveal that an extractor fan or air conditioner had just been turned from the earlier phases of the war - which was characterised more by brutal, direct combat - came home fearful of being in forests, where much of the fighting had taken place. But drone warfare has reversed the phenomenon. Now soldiers "feel safest in forests, under dense tree canopies", the psychiatrist said. "And in their free time, they try to avoid wooded areas."The rise in drone use has had another terrorising effect for combat troops - it has extended the danger zone far back from the front line. Soldiers operating up to 40km (25 miles) away, or pulling back after a heavy rotation, can no longer let their guard Bokhii, a commander of a small drone unit, was about 5km from the contact line in a dugout one day when his unit scored a direct hit on a Russian mortar position 22km away. Buoyed by the success, Bokhii bounded out of the dugout, forgetting the usual protocol of stopping first to listen for a telltale away, a Russian FPV was loitering in the air. As it sped towards him, Bokhii only had time to raise his arms. When it detonated, it took both his hands and his left eye and badly burned his face. Bokhii's own PTSD was limited, he said, to an occasional fear response to motorcycles and lawnmowers. But he knew about the effect of the sound, he said, because his unit had used it to inflict terror on others."We were the side that caused fear with sound, not the side that suffered from it," Bokhii had realised at some point that the sound could be used to force Russian soldiers into exposed areas. "You buzz around them and it becomes a test of the enemy's psychological resilience," Bokhii said. "The sound of the drone itself is a serious psychological attack."According to Bokhii, buzz above a soldier for long enough and he will leave a strong shelter and simply run into open terrain. "Our psychology works in such a way that we need to do something to calm ourselves," Bokhii said. "So you hover nearby and psychologically suppress him… and he starts running and becomes easier to hit."And the psychological terror of the FPV is no longer just a problem on the front line. It has reached beyond even the areas behind the front lines. Russia has begun using FPVs to drop munitions on civilians in Ukrainian cities the worst hit is Kherson, a southern city occupied for a time by Russian forces and still comfortably within drone range. According to Human Rights Watch, Russian forces have deliberately targeted civilians in the city with FPV drones and killed or maimed them - a war to the regional military administration, at least 84 civilians have been killed in the Kherson region as a result of Russian drone attacks so far this say the tiny FPVs are a daily terror."There is no such thing as a safe place anymore," said Dmytro Olifirenko, a 23-year-old border guard who lives in Kherson city. "You always have to be alert, focused, and because of that, the body is constantly under stress," he said. Olifirenko was waiting at a bus stop in September when he heard the familiar sound of a Russian drone overhead. "We thought it would follow the bus, because they had been hunting civilian buses," he the drone simply dropped its munition on the bus stop, sending shrapnel into Olifirenko's head, face and leg. Video of the incident, filmed by a bystander, captured the buzz of the drone followed by Olifirenko's screams as he bled onto the now heard the drones "constantly", he said, whether they were there or not. "It hits your mental and psychological health hard," he said. "Even when you leave for Mykolaiv or another city, you are constantly trying to listen."For civilians like Oliferenko, the drones have transformed the ordinary sounds of a populated area – cars, motorcycles, generators, lawnmowers, air conditioners – into a psychological gauntlet for civilians to run every day, even as they contend with the real danger of the drones the soldiers coming back from the front, like Pavlo, the drones have created a new and specific type of fear, one that is not easy to shake."You see the world as a battlefield," Pavlo said. "It can become a battlefield any second."And of all the triggers, hearing - the human sense drones are exploiting so effectively - was the most insidious, he said."When you see something, your brain can check it in a second, you can realise what it is very fast."But an unknown sound is different. Your brain has been changed. You cannot ignore it, you must respond. Because at the frontline, it could save your life."Svitlana Libet contributed to this report. Photographs by Joel Gunter.
Daily Mail
16-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Russian soldiers surrender to Ukrainian patrol made up of robots
This is the astonishing moment Russian soldiers surrendered to a Ukrainian patrol made up entirely of robots and drones. Footage shows both FPV and kamikaze ground drones striking a Russian dugout, before troops emerge holding a handwritten sign reading 'We want to surrender'. In a historic first, the soldiers were taken prisoner without a single Ukrainian infantryman present - marking the world's first successful combat capture using only unmanned aerial and ground drones. As the first drone - reportedly carrying an anti-tank mine - detonated, the Russian soldiers realised the imminent danger and quickly created a cardboard sign to signal their surrender before a second drone could strike. An overhead drone then guided the Russians directly to Ukrainian lines, where they were taken prisoner without resistance. Ukrainian infantry later moved in to secure the captured position - without suffering a single casualty. Kyiv had previously attempted to gain control of the area through traditional means, but without success. The logic behind the combined use of aerial and ground drones is simple but effective - with each having unique capabilities. While aerial drones excel in reconnaissance, target identification, and precision strikes, ground-based UGVs can carry a far larger amount of explosives. It comes after in March Ukraine's first all-robot offensive destroyed a Russian frontline unit without a single soldier being on the ground. The attack on a Russian position north of the embattled Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, saw the nation's 13th National Guard Brigade Khartiya launch around 50 unmanned aerial vehicles. The five-hour attack, believed to be the first of its kind, left several Russian corpses in its wake, and has now lead to other Ukrainian units planning similar missions. Lt. Andriy Kopach, who specialises in land drones, told the Wall Street Journal that as the early morning assault began, Ukrainian troops knelt in deep snow to release five unmanned ground vehicles at different spots several miles from the front-line to prevent crossing signals and confusing the robots. These five ground vehicles were mounted with massive machine guns and ammunition belts. Footage showed the ground vehicles traipsing across snow-covered land near Kharkiv. They were assisted by a swarm of first-person-view (FPV) drones, including one mounted with an assault rifle and many that dropped explosives, as they approached enemy lines. All of this was coordinated from a command post near the frontline. Video footage showed several Ukrainian soldiers sitting in a command post in front of dozens of screens, on which real-time battle information was relayed to them from the swarm of land and air drones at their disposal. One clip appeared to show a mobile land drone driving towards a Russian bunker during the battle and detonating itself.
