Drone bomb, drone age survival, drone survival

A video shows smiling trainer holding a tennis ball above a soldier lying on his back on a padded gym floor. Today’s lesson is how not to be hit by drone bombs. He releases the ball, standing in for a grenade dropped from a drone, and the soldier quickly rolls out of the way and adopts the fetal position. Rolling is just one of the survival techniques that Russian soldiers are learning in the drone age. Hiding, running and playing dead are also options, but a new guide explains that none is entirely reliable.

Ukrainian forces make extensive use of consumer quadcopters fitted with 3D-printed devices them to drop grenades, most often the small Vog-17 but sometimes hand grenades or other munitions. Ukraine now claims to have trained over 10,000 drone operators, and some are extremely skilled at dropping bombs through open vehicle hatches or into foxholes. Hundreds of videos online show their relentless attacks on Russian troops. (Special thanks to Paul Jawin for compiling many of the examples used here).

Popular military blogger Russian Engineer has gathered together a summary of Russian military ‘folk wisdom’ collected by troops. This provides practical advice on how to avoid being killed by small drones, painting a grim picture of life subject to constant attacks from above resembling the post-apocalypse scenes of a Terminator movie.

Russian Engineer says that the best protection is an anti-drone jamming gun or portable ‘electronic warfare suitcase,’ if you can afford them. Drone guns are 150,000 rubles ($1900) and the suitcases are 90,000 ($1,100); as with much military equipment, Russian soldiers have to buy their own. In addition, he says to “Remember that their radiation is easily found by the enemy.” Ukraine has plenty of devices to pinpoint Russian radio emissions and broadcasting a drone jamming signal can draw down artillery fire.

The drones only carry one of two bombs, and often have to make multiple attacks. A drone operator had to bring his machine back and reload five times to destroy this truck, the crew fleeing after the second hit. It took at least six attacks to dispose of a group of Russian soldiers around a ruined building. Such repeat visits show a lack of counter-drone defenses.

For soldiers without cover, survival requires constant vigilance.

“Organize constant visual observation of the sky and constant audio reconnaissance – listen for the characteristic noise of the copter,” Russian Engineer advises.

The great thing is not to be noticed. Russian Engineer advises covering positions in camouflage netting, and warns that plastic bags, fresh earth and household garbage are very noticeable and will make your position obvious. Many drones also have thermal imaging and can see through some cover.

Overhead cover is vital important. If you simply huddle in a trench or foxhole, “death will surely fly from above.” This has been learned the hard way: in video after video we see Russian soldiers bombed while sheltering in trenches, some of them while still in their sleeping bags. Without cover, any hole is just an open grave.

And you must stay absolutely motionless: “The main factor by which you can be seen from the air is movement!”

If you are spotted, you can try shooting at the drone, but this only works at low altitude and needs a lot of shooters to have a chance of success. The other option is to run for it.

“Constantly move, it can only aim at a fixed target,” says Russian Engineer, noting that you will need to evade for around ten minutes before the drone’s battery runs low and it has to return to recharge. But he also says the drones may operate in ‘carousels,’ with another one stepping in when one withdraws, so escape may not be so easy.

Videos suggest that while the drone bombers could only hit stationary targets at the start of the war, some operators are getting better at hitting moving targets With luck and judgement they can hit running troops. Some Russian have now been seen zig-zagging as they run away from drones.

Or you can try that famous drone bomb roll as shown in the training clip.

“Lie on your back and watch the copter,” says Russian Engineer. ”As soon as it drops the munition on you, go rolling — without getting to your feet, to the side. After making two rolls, take the fetal position, facing the explosion — reducing your possible affected area.”

This will certainly improve your chances of survival. The small Vog grenades explode on impact with the ground, so most of the shrapnel is thrown outwards and upwards. Someone flat on the ground can survive an explosion even a short distance away. Many videos suggest survival is possible even when a grenade lands very close – but there is still a high chance of being injured. Some videos show soldiers applying tourniquets after near-misses suggesting serious bleeding. Others show injured soldiers coming under attack again as others try to help them.

The current Vog-based drone bombs seem more likely to injure than kill, and an air-burst version would be far deadlier, but far more complex and expensive than the current simple design.

Some Russian soldiers appear to play dead after drone attacks. Russian media claim that one soldier caught a Ukrainian drone with his bare hands using this ruse. These days drone operators may drop several more bombs just to make sure.

The videos show how brutal and messy drone bombing is. The psychological impact on the operators who see so much close-up destruction can only be guessed at. The effect on those below must also be traumatizing. Another Russian blogger, ‘Older than Edda’ noted that the Ukrainians concentrate their drones over a position to force those below into immobility, making resupply impossible in a technique he called ‘isolating the war zone.’

“What is important here not to kill the enemy, but to scare him so that he is afraid to move….morale then drops by an order of magnitude….In a couple of days, walkie-talkie batteries and water run out. And even the most hardened fighters will abandon their positions,” says the Older than Edda.

Neither mentions the possibility of surrender. Ukrainian videos have emerged of Russian soldiers surrendering to drones, throwing away their weapons and being led back to Ukrainian lines to be taken captive. This may be in response to leaflets dropped from drones telling them how to surrender , or individual communications from drones as in this video.

A year into the conflict, drone bombing is making Russian defensive positions a lot less safe and comfortable than they would be otherwise. This may be an important precursor to the coming counter-offensive, and no amount of rolling will escape that.