Now in its fourth yr, the Russia-Ukraine battle has unleashed upon the world the ‘drone wars’, the place these small flying craft have reorganized how high-intensity wars are fought.
Within the context of a peer-to-peer battle with heavy tools and fortified strongholds, it turns into not a conflict of motion, however a conflict of attrition, during which both sides desires to destroy the opposite’s capabilities.
That’s the place the drones enter – from the Russian ‘Geraniums’ (Shahed) to the Ukrainian Baba-Yaga, to the myriads of quadcopters utilized by each side.
The drones supply an answer costing hundreds or tens of hundreds – and is able to destroying tanks, armored automobiles, and different items of kit that price in a multi-million-dollar vary.
Whereas Kiev had the higher hand on this know-how at first of the conflict, this has lengthy since modified, with Moscow’s output now bigger than all of the western powers mixed.
And the techniques have additionally modified, as an elite Russian drone is making a distinction on this section of the conflict, and has now seen destroying the dear HIMARS artillery methods that Ukraine depends on a lot.
Russian forces have destroyed a Ukrainian HIMARS with a fiber optic FPV drone 30km behind the road of contact.
This is perhaps one the one greatest trade ratio of the conflict.
$1000 drone vs 3.5 million greenback missile system. pic.twitter.com/NhNLS1b3kv
— ayden (@squatsons) May 6, 2025
The Telegraph reported:
“The assault was reportedly carried out by Rubicon, the Kremlin’s elite drone warfare unit that Ukrainian troopers have come to worry. Beforehand deployed earlier this yr throughout Russia’s brutal marketing campaign to recapture the japanese city of Kursk, Rubicon has now been redirected to hunt Ukraine’s most precious battlefield belongings: its US-supplied long-range missiles. There are indicators it’s succeeding.”
The Joe Biden regime despatched at least 40 of those methods.
The benefit of the HIMARS is sitting ‘deep behind the entrance line’. However now, as we’ve discovered, no place within the rear in ‘protected’ anymore.
“Due to their significance, it’s uncommon for a Himars launcher to be positioned simply 10km from the entrance line. The one which was destroyed close to the war-torn city of Chasov Yar was subsequently most likely getting used to hit a goal deep behind enemy strains.”
Work of the Russian drone unit “Rubicon” within the Donbass areas. pic.twitter.com/bzPkGCj0Xz
— Spetsnaℤ 007 (@Alex_Oloyede2) May 5, 2025
The Joe Biden regime despatched at least 40 of those methods.
The benefit of the HIMARS is sitting ‘deep behind the entrance line’. However now, as we’ve discovered, no place within the rear in ‘protected’ anymore.
“Due to their significance, it’s uncommon for a Himars launcher to be positioned simply 10km from the entrance line. The one which was destroyed close to the war-torn city of Chasov Yar was subsequently most likely getting used to hit a goal deep behind enemy strains.”
The Telegraph report counts not less than 4 HIMARS destroyed thus far.
And the most recent know-how employed by Russian drone squads is an actual risk to Kiev.
“Not like earlier losses, which largely resulted from missile or artillery strikes, the most recent assault on one of many methods was reportedly carried out by a first-person view (FPV) drone utilizing a fiber-optic steerage cable – a complicated and largely jam-proof design that indicators a harmful shift within the battle. Conventional FPV drones are susceptible to Ukraine’s digital warfare methods, which jam incoming frequencies and render them blind mid-flight. However fiber-optic drones are bodily tethered to their operators by way of ultra-thin cables that transmit real-time video and steerage indicators.”
The Russian Rubicon drone crew revealed one other compilation of Russian FPV drone strikes towards Ukranian recon drones.
I counted 24 on this sequence. pic.twitter.com/kuSI1usYSA
— Heyman_101 (@SU_57R) May 19, 2025
The Russian fiber-optic drones are at this level mainly inconceivable to jam.
The ‘Rubicon’ squad was established again in October 2024 by orders of Russia’s new protection minister, Andrei Belousov – a civilian.
“Its drone pilots now function in not less than seven specialist detachments throughout japanese Ukraine, finishing up advanced, decentralized missions. The unit’s techniques are equally trendy. Through the Kursk offensive, Rubicon drones reportedly struck brief segments of highway – simply 100 to 300 meters lengthy – from a number of angles without delay, catching convoys in deadly ambushes.”
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