Ukrainian Commandos Decimate Russian Mechanized Force Using Racing Hobby Drones

Late in December, roughly a dozen BMP infantry fighting vehicles streamed down a road advancing on Avdiivka, a suburb three miles northeast of the pro-Russian separatist ‘capital’ of Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine.

Since Russia’s invasions in 2014-2015, pro-Russian separatists and the Russian army have repeatedly sought to wrest control of the suburbs around Donetsk city in Eastern Ukraine from entrenched Ukrainian forces—with only minimal success.

Late this December, the Ukrainian-held suburb of Avdiivka was apparently pressed by by Russian mechanized forces mounted in BMP infantry fighting vehicles bristling with cannons, anti-tank missiles, machine guns, and onboard infantry.

But over the course of a week, attacking Russian columns fell under the watchful eyes of drones and commandoes from Ukraine’s Omega group, a shadowy special forces unit of the Ukrainian National Guard. Originally intended for counterterrorist and bodyguard missions, the Omega group has extensive combat experience conducting raids, reconnaissance, and ambushes while infiltrated behind enemy lines in the Kharkiv and Donetsk area.

Omega recorded footage of its ambushes that week which it shared on the Facebook page of the National Guard’s Northern Command on Dec. 27.

The first half of the video showcases conventional weapons, starting with an artillery strike that destroying at least one BMP outright. The commandos also contributed direct fire, starting with footage (at 0:10 in video above) from the video-feed of a Ukrainian-built laser-directed Stugna-P anti-tank missile, then a view of a U.S.-supplied Javelin launcher positioned at an overlook as its lobs its fire-and-forget missile. This distinctively arcs high into the sky before plummeting down in the thin top armor of its target.

But 53 seconds in, something very different appears: point-of-view footage transmitted from a munition itself speeding towards moving BMPs. Two of the four rotors of quadcopter drones can be faintly seen whirling on the edges of the screen.

One of the drones can be seen smashing into the ribbed front glacis armor of a BMP-2. Two more smack into the side hull of BMPs racing down the road. In the third strike recording, the conical nose of a rocket-propelled grenade is visibly slung under the camera—it’s shaped charge warhead easily capable of penetrating a BMP’s armor.

The fourth clip shows a munition chasing a speeding BMP from behind. The rear hull hatches (loaded with fuel) of the vehicle’s troop compartment are open. Two soldiers are perched on top of the BMP’s hull, one of whom appears to fire a weapon at the approaching the drones before rolling off the side as the drone closes the distance and its feed evaporates into ominous static.

As these videos obviously cut at the moment of impact, we don’t know the extent of the damage, though it was likely a mission-kill at a minimum given the BMP’s thin armor.

On Facebook, Ukraine’s National Guard claimed the ambushes resulted in destruction of seven armored vehicles and “over half-a hundred Russian invaders.” The footage itself appears to confirm the destruction of at least 3 BMPs by missiles and artillery, and damage or possible destruction of four more by the first-person view drones.

Another December recording shows an FPV drone destroying a fuel truck—apparently five mile east of the west bank of the Dnieper River liberated by Ukraine mid-November. The attack was executed despite degradation of the video-feed prior to impact, either due to flying at lower altitude or Russian jamming.

Hobby racers made into deadly weapons

Both sides have certainly shared ample footage of kamikaze drones in the conflict in Ukraine, including from Iranian-built Shahed-136s used for strategic attacks on Ukrainian cities, and Lancet-3 and KYB loitering munitions used against tactical targets, particularly including U.S.-supplied towed howitzers.

On the Ukrainian side there’s footage from U.S.-built Switchblades and indigenous RAM-II loitering munitions based on the fixed-wing Leleka-100 reconnaissance drone. (The U.S. has also supplied over a thousand Phoenix Ghost loitering munitions which have yet to be revealed on camera.) Indeed, the slightly longer cut posted on Facebook by Omega also depicts a bunker strike possibly executed by a Switchblade.

However, the drones used on the Avdiivka strikes were faster than typical tactical-range quadcopters. In fact, they were comparatively agile FPV (First Person View) racing drones designed to be piloted by operators using goggles to which the drone streams via Wi-fi imagery from a front-facing high-resolution camera.

As an organized sport, FPV drone racing was incepted in Germany in 2011 and over a decade later is supported by multiple organizations and championship events across the globe.

While elite racers compete with custom-built drones, we can consider the mass-market Chinese-built DJI FPV presently sold on Amazon.com for $899: weighing only 1.7 pounds, it has a maximum speed of 84 miles per hour (140 kph) in manual control mode, maximum range of 10 miles under optimal conditions, and maximum endurance of 16-20 minutes. In theory the FAA restricts FPV drones to speeds no higher than 100 miles per hour and to line-of-sight operations only, though longer-distance ops are possible and higher speeds have unsurprisingly been attained.

By contrast, the DJI Mavic 3 commercial camera drone widely used by Russian and Ukrainian forces for grenade-dropping strikes and reconnaissance has a maximum speed of 47 miles per hour. Due to their maneuverability, FPV drones are also claimed to be adept at the precise maneuvers required to enter a building through doors or windows.

However, adding even a small explosive warhead to light racers sharply reduce maximum range and endurance. The fact that two of the drone displays were flashing “Low Battery” warnings indicates they had nearly exhausted their batteries closing with the Russian vehicles.

The high explosive anti-tank PG-7VL shaped charge of a rocket-propelled grenades seen on one of the drones over Avdiivka weighs 5.7 pounds. Presumably, a larger FPV racer was carrying this weapon. More feasibly, smaller U.S. M430 40-millimeter dual-purpose grenades weighing only .75 pounds can still penetrate 2-3 inches of armor—and the armor of a BMP doesn’t exceed 1.4”.

The ad-hoc conversion and use of FPV racing drones as loitering munitions has been documented since early in the conflict, as well as for use in reconnaissance and search-and-rescue roles. The lack of export regulation on such drones facilitates their transfer abroad. DJI FPVs have been visually documented in use by both Ukrainian and Russian forces, despite China’s official ban on sales of DJI drones to either side.

Other FPVs models are also in use in the conflict. Manufacturer Rotor Riot donated over a dozen racers to Ukraine, which allegedly “helped divert a column of Russian tanks” early in the war according to an article by DroneLife. Drone Aid Ukraine is also known to have delivered 11 Opterra E-flite fixed-wing FPV drones to the Ukrainian military.

Despite their adaptability for delivering lethal attacks, racing drones don’t appear to be favored over slower camera drones because they require significantly more skill and experience to operate effectively. In a social media post, prominent pro-Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov (AKA ‘War Gonzo’) even specifically recommends against buying and donating FPV drones as “money down the drain” due to their high training requirements and short battery lives.

Thus it seems doubtful FPV racers requiring goggle-wearing operators will be adapted for standardized, large-scale military use as is happening with slower, commercial-style quadcopters. However, Ukraine at present can use every weapon—and skilled drone operator—it can get. And at Avdiivka, the Omega group demonstrated they could wield weaponized racing drones to knock out a platoon’s worth of armored vehicles.