"Little just to be able to fly": why civilian drones are needed in the war

In December 2022, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexei Reznikov stated in an interview with the Left Bank that the department did not buy civilian UAVs because they are not adapted for combat flights. According to him, only some creative fighters use the Mavic rulers and them similar to the "trenches" and the destruction of Russian forces. "The military is not perceived, our generals call them wedding drones," Reznikov said.

Many servicemen, volunteers and aero -intelligence have criticized the words of the Ministry of Defense. For example, the founder of the "Come back alive" Vitaliy Deyneng on Facebook said that commercial drones with Starlink terminals allow the Armed Forces to keep defense and not yield to the prevailing forces of the occupiers, and firing more precisely. "Without them, we would spend many times more ammunition for at times smaller and fight for the Dnieper, not for Bakhmut," the volunteer said.

Since the beginning of a full -scale war in Ukraine, civilian UAVs have successfully replaced expensive and scarce military drones. They became the "eyes" of the Armed Forces, allowing the military to conduct intelligence at a distance of up to 10 km, watching the movement of Russian troops. In addition, drones are used for accurate artillery.

According to Sergei Risenko, Matrice 300 or Matrice 30, DJI, DJI, DJI, is perfect for adjusting the fire on the front, as they equipped with 200-fold zoom cameras. The capabilities of non -military drones are limited, but Ukrainian craftsmen are greatly expanding them by introducing their modifications. One of the most popular is the reset system that converts the usual quadcopter into a shock drone. Both military and civilian engineers are engaged in the creation of such devices.

There have been a lot of controversy around the use of homemade bombers, some indicate a high risk of drone loss, the danger to the operator and low efficiency, since the conditional DJI Mavic 3 can only raise light grenades that can not cause high losses. However, Sergei Risenko assures that drones work in skillful hands and can even destroy the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces. Alexei Reznikov called another disadvantage of "Mavikiv".

According to the minister, such quadcopters work no more than two days before he will be harvested by Russian troops. But Sergei Risenko assures that the duration of "life" of the UAV on the front depends on the experience of operators, as well as the enemies they resist. Even to manage civilian drones, the military needs special skills and understanding of the features of combat.

"It is not enough to just learn how to fly a drone, you need to at least understand the basic rules of flights when applying the enemy of radio electronic struggle," he said. Many volunteer organizations not only supply drones of the Armed Forces, but also teach servicemen how to manage them. In a few days, operators teach theory, take exams and receive certificates, and then take practical training at UAV landfills, radios, Starlink and software terminals.

Russia is gradually improving the HRs system to knock down as many Ukrainian drones along the front line. Most often, Russians use jamming, creating obstacles and blocking satellite navigation, in this case, the operator is more difficult or at all impossible to control the device. Often used GPS-spuffing, when the drone transmits a false signal GPS, which changes its geolocation and makes land.