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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukraine's special operators used to dodge artillery shells. Now they're trying to survive Russian drones.
Small exploding drones have emerged as the main battlefield killer in Ukraine. Ukraine's special operators were once focused on artillery, but now they train to survive drones. An American instructor said he teaches soldiers to hide, move smart, and use their guns if needed. Ukraine's special operators used to focus their training on surviving intense Russian artillery fire. Now, their attention has shifted to drones — the main battlefield killer. "Things have changed drastically," an American instructor with the 4th Ranger Regiment of Ukraine's Special Operations Forces told Business Insider. He could only be identified by his call sign Scooter for security reasons. "One of the main differences we see today is the prevalence of drones," he said. "In 2022, it was primarily artillery fire. There was a lot more of it." The Ukrainian Rangers are now learning better concealment tactics and how to shoot down drones with their service weapons as a last resort. Artillery, long described as the "king of battle," has played a central role in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, especially during the early years of the conflict, with both sides using the towed cannons and multiple launch rocket systems to attack the enemy. The scale of the artillery duels could be seen in satellite imagery of the battlefield, where hundreds of craters peppered huge swaths of land and reduced buildings to rubble. However, amid strained ammunition stockpiles and as the war transitioned from a maneuver-oriented conflict to one of attrition, with relatively static front lines, drones have emerged as the dominant battlefield threat, with some recent estimates suggesting that they are causing around 70% of Russian and Ukrainian casualties. Scooter attributed the rise of drones to what has been called "shell hunger," explaining that Russia exhausted its stocks of artillery ammunition and began to rely on small quadcopter drones — known as first-person view, or FPV, drones — to fill the gaps. Ukraine also experienced a shortage of artillery rounds, turning to drones as an alternative. "In 2022, we were trained to utilize terrain and structures to counter artillery fire," said Scooter, speaking to BI via video chat from an undisclosed location in central Ukraine. "Now, we have to train people with the mentality that they are going to constantly be targeted by a loitering munition piloted by a human operator," he said. 'Move fast — don't move too fast' FPV drones have emerged as a cheap way to deliver precision strikes against enemy trenches, personnel, and vehicles. Above Ukraine, these weapons are everywhere, with their tiny cameras giving human operators near-constant battlefield surveillance. Russia and Ukraine have made the FPV drones even more of an issue over the past year by using fiber-optic cables to connect them to their operators, making the small aircraft resistant to most electronic warfare tactics. "We have had to change our mentality with training completely," Scooter said. "How do I deal with FPVs? Not so much 'how do I deal with artillery fire?" He said the first thing that he teaches Ukraine's special operators is how to blend in with their surroundings and practice better camouflage techniques. This means that every shiny object needs to be painted, removed, or taped over, with paint covering the hands and face. Soldiers are also taught how to stay hidden using tree lines or thick forests to their advantage and to find heat sources, such as a car or generator, if they can, to blend in with their surroundings. A Russian drone operator piloting a surveillance drone may not be able to spot the difference between two white blobs on the screen. Scooter said he trains soldiers in many of the same ways he would snipers or reconnaissance personnel. "Move fast — don't move too fast," he said. "Don't draw unnecessary attention. The human eye sees movement, shape, and color — in that order. So move carefully, blend in with your surroundings." "Basically, the same way you might hide from an enemy helicopter is the way you're going to hide from a drone," he added. Instructors are also teaching Ukraine's special operators to fight the FPV drones with their service weapons — specifically shotguns — as a last resort. However, these small targets are extremely difficult to hit, and if the drone is close enough, a direct impact could set off its explosive payload, and its forward momentum could spell trouble. "Small arms fire is seldom effective" against an FPV drone, Scooter said. "But our mentality is that if I can do nothing else, something is better than nothing." Read the original article on Business Insider Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
4 people killed, multiple others injured in Russia and Ukraine as they trade aerial attacks
Russia and Ukraine traded aerial attacks overnight, resulting in two deaths in each country and many people wounded on both sides, according to officials. On the battlefield, the Russian military said Saturday that it seized the village of Zelenyi Hai in the eastern Donetsk region that Moscow illegally annexed but only partially controls, and the village of Maliivka in the Dnipro region. There was no immediate comment on the claim from Ukrainian officials. Ukraine's southern Dnipro and northeastern Sumy regions came under combined rocket and drone attack, local officials reported. Head of the Dnipro regional administration Serhii Lysak said at least two people had died and five were wounded in the barrage. In the city of Dnipro, a multi-story building and business were damaged during the strike and outside of the city a fire engulfed a shopping center. In Sumy, the military administration said three people were injured. On Saturday, Russian drones hit a central square in the city of Sumy, and damaged the building of the regional administration. Kharkiv sustained an intense aerial bombardment overnight. Ukraine's State Emergency Situations Service said six people were hurt in Kharkiv, including four rescuers who were wounded in a double tap strike — where a second attack targets emergency workers trying to help people wounded in the initial attack. According to the daily air force report, in total Russia targeted Ukraine with 208 drones and 27 missiles overnight. It said according to preliminary data, air defense and electronic warfare took down or intercepted 183 drones and 17 missiles but hits from 10 missiles and 25 drones had been recorded in nine locations. Russia's Defense Ministry on Saturday claimed that it successfully struck military facilities in Ukraine that 'manufacture components for missile weapons, as well as produce ammunition and explosives.' The claim could not be independently verified. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an online statement that 'there can be absolutely no silence in response to such strikes, and Ukrainian long-range drones ensure this.' 'Russian military enterprises, Russian logistics, Russian airports must feel that the Russian war has real consequences for them,' Zelenskyy wrote. In Russia, officials said that Ukrainian drones targeted multiple regions overnight. A drone attack on the Rostov region, on the border with Ukraine, killed two people, acting governor Yuri Slyusar reported. In the neighboring Stavropol region, drones hit an unspecified industrial facility, governor Vladimir Vladimirov said on Telegram. He added that the attack sparked a brief fire, but didn't specify where exactly. Vladimirov said cellphone internet in the region was restricted because of the attack — a measure authorities regularly take across the vast country that critics say helps widespread online censorship. An unconfirmed media report said videos posted online by local residents showed that the drones hit the Signal radio plant that makes jamming equipment. The Associated Press was unable to verify the claim. Drones also targeted Moscow, but were shot down, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, and an unspecified industrial facility in the Penza region southeast of the capital, Gov. Oleg Melnichenko said. Russia's Defense Ministry said that its air defenses shot down or intercepted a total of 54 Ukrainian drones, including 24 over the Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, 12 over the Rostov region, six over the annexed Crimean Peninsula, four over the Azov sea, three over the Black Sea and a few others over the Orlov, Tula and Belgorod regions. In Russia's Ingushetia region in the North Caucasus, a woman and three children were injured after a drone fell on a private house, regional health officials said. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
The ugly monoliths quietly desecrating America's most sacred sites… and driving locals to the brink
They were once hallowed grounds where cannon smoke filled the skies and musket balls tore through blue and gray uniforms - sites of blood, brotherhood and the brutal birth of a nation. Today, America's most sacred battlefield sites face a different kind of invasion - one of cold, hulking mega-structures filled not with soldiers, but with servers.
Wall Street Journal
5 days ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
The Pentagon Gets Serious About Drones
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently put out a video unveiling drone deregulation for the U.S. military, and the Trump crowd loves a good show. But the Pentagon's play is welcome and crucial for preparing American forces for a future fight. 'Drones are the biggest battlefield innovation in a generation, accounting for most of this year's casualties in Ukraine,' Mr. Hegseth's memo this month says. 'Our adversaries produce millions of cheap drones each year.' Anyone awake to the Ukraine war knows drones dominate the front lines, and Russia is churning out copies with a heavy assist from Chinese parts.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Ukraine's Upgraded Fiber Drones Are Deadlier At Longer Ranges
The REBOFF by 3DTech is an unjammable fiber optic FPV with a range of 20 kilometers/ 12 miles Less than eighteen months since the first prototypes appeared, drones controlled via fiber optic cable rather than radio have become a major weapon in Ukraine. Immune to jamming and able to go places where other drones cannot, fiber drones are almost impossible to stop. I talked to Oleksiy Zhulinskiy, CEO Ukraine's 3DTech about their work in this field, the challenges of flying fiber drones, Chinese sabotage, and the future. The Russians may have a head start in numbers, but 3DTech is ramping up production of superior designs. 'Now, our major challenge is scaling production to large volumes,' says Zhulinskiy. Steal From The Enemy, Then Improve The first Russian fiber FPVs appeared in early 2024. Many were skeptical whether fiber optic cables were strong enough for battlefield conditions. Ukrainian drone expert Serhii Flash thought fiber drones would likely be limited to very short ranges. But when they turned out to be effective weapons, the Ukrainians set about learning from their enemies. 'Field-captured enemy prototypes from summer 2024 inspired ours,' says Zhulinskiy. Spool dispnesers are now more aerodynamic and reliablew 3DTech started by replacing the heavy frames used by the Russians with lightweight carbon ones. With the additional weight of the spool, every ounce matters. Improving balance was also an issue. 'Designing a fiber‑optic drone required careful weight distribution,' says Zhulinskiy. 'We mount a spool with a certain length of fiber, but as it unspools and gets lighter, we must account for that in component placement.' Initially, like the Russians, 3DTech used commercial Chinese spools. But they found they could make better ones themselves. 'The spool has evolved: aerodynamic housing to reduce drag, fiber-unspooling channel with a polished metal tip to reduce friction and static,' says Zhulinskiy. 3DTech now have their own spool-winding machines to avoid issues with spools from foreign suppliers Making their own spools had another big advantage. Reports from the field said that some of the Chinese versions failed when the drones were launched. Worse, this may not have been accidental. 'Recently, Chinese spools often break halfway through the intended length,' says Zhulinskiy. 'Possibly, though we cannot confirm this, this is deliberate sabotage from our Chinese partners.' This concern has been echoed by other fiber drone users complaining that up to half the Chinese fiber cables snapped in flight. To avoid such problems, 3DTech now wind their own fiber spools, with a standardized design used on different drone types which can also be retrofitted to radio-control FPVs. The company has switched to lightweight 0.25mm fiber (G657A2 ) rather than the earlier .5mm. 3DTech are constantly seeking to improve fiber quality and testing new types 'Fiber thickness doesn't influence breakage. Our 0.25 mm fiber spools perform better than Chinese 0.5 mm ones,' says Zhulinskiy. 'New fiber types are emerging, offering better flexibility and less break risk. We are testing various fibers to choose the most effective. We still rely on imports for raw fiber— but we have local winding lines and spool housing manufacturing. So our spool is almost fully localized. We're working to diversify raw material suppliers to avoid dependency on any single country or supplier.' 3DTech upgraded other elements including the ground controller. The result, with better spools, aerodynamics and fiber might be described as a next-generation fiber drone. Better Flying By Fiber There are many myths about the flight limitations of fiber drones, but Zhulinskiy says that in truth pilots have had little difficulty adapting to them. 'Maneuvers like acceleration, deceleration, diving, spinning, hovering, and landing are all possible,' says Zhulinskiy. 'However, pilots must carefully plan the route to avoid crossing the unspooling path, and ensure the cable isn't severed by vehicles, infantry, or other drones.' In some ways fiber makes piloting easier. Pilots of radio controlled FPVs have to maintain altitude because dipping below the radio horizon can cause the signal to be lost. Obstacles like trees and buildings also affect radio waves, but fiber drones can maintain a perfect signal. They can travel inside buildings and down pipes and tunnels in search of targets, or even down trenches. 'Fiber optic communication lets drones operate in environments where radio signals don't penetrate—lowlands, enclosed spaces. On the battlefield, this has shown great effectiveness: we have many confirmed targets in closed spaces, bunkers, or areas with poor radio visibility like dense forests,' says Zhulinskiy. Being able to go low has another big advantage. 'Flying close to the ground allows these drones to be used for ambush-style tactics, targeting logistical lines in the near and mid rear.' There are many videos of ambush drones picking off Russian transport vehicles racing to get supplies to the front line. 'They sit in the grass and take off,' warns one Russian blogger. 'So many guys die from these waiting ones. This has never happened before.' Further And Further Most fiber drones have a spool length of 20 kilometers maximum. 3DTech aim to go further. 'Designing a drone capable of long-distance missions – twenty plus kilometers -- is a serious challenge. We found that not all media converters could transmit signals that far,' says Zhulinskiy. 'We also need higher-quality batteries. This requires optimizing spool weight and developing efficient motor/propeller systems for energy efficiency and payload lift.' Technology was not the only problem. The military bureaucracy had trouble dealing with this new weapon., 'Unfortunately, the state didn't understand how to codify them—there was no testing methodology for this kind of drone. Our efforts from autumn through winter 2025 focused on creating this methodology.' 3DTech's specialists joined with the Ministry of Defense and other agencies to help develop testing and procedures for certifying the drones as suitable for service. And now things are moving. 'We have five NATO-codified models rated for 10–20 km range, and two more up to 30 km pending codification,' says Zhulinskiy. And that is unlikely to be the last word. 40-kilometer fiber drones are feasible, though these are likely to be fixed-wing rather than quadcopter. Other improvements are in the pipeline. At present 3DTech use standard low-resolution cameras, but the higher bandwidth provided by fiber means it can carry higher resolutions. This would enable the operator to spot targets at longer ranges and see finer detail – for example netting strung up to stop drones. Ukraine's fiber drone are already more reliable, more efficient and can hit targets at longer ranges that their Russian counterparts. Zhulinskiy estimates that around 10% of Ukrainian drones are currently fiber, a figure which is rising fast. 'Our goal is to scale up production to at least 10,000 drones per month and make the products as cheap and effective as possible, giving the military abundant, efficient tools for many missions,' says Zhulinskiy. According to Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, 15 Ukrainian manufacturers are making fiber drones, with another 20 companies producing components. This diversity allows new designs to flourish and spread. And a recent law cuts aims to help the business by cutting taxes on fiber drone components. Russia may have introduced the world to fiber drones. But the original developer does not always have the last word and this looks like a field where Ukraine can dominate.
