Russian Infantry Are Now Carrying Their Own Drones Into Combat, Helping Them Infiltrate Deeper

Expect chaos more than nine miles from the front line

A Russian drone operator. Russian state media photo

It’s a standard Russian tactic, 45 months into the wider war on Ukraine, for surveillance drones to help guide infantry groups across the wide no-man’s-land to their objectives.

But in Russian doctrine, most small surveillance drones—the kind that would support an infantry squad with just a few soldiers—answer to battalion or brigade.

Those drones normally range just nine miles or so from their operators, who might be hunkered in some basement or earthen dugout. The drone feeds imagery to the battalion or brigade headquarters, which then passes information via radio to the attacking infantry.

The Russians have a problem, however. As the front line grows increasingly porous and the no-man’s-land widens, it’s possible for the luckiest Russian infantry groups to infiltrate deeper than nine miles in a single operation. They can, in other words, march farther than battalion or brigade’s drones can see.

But at that distance, outpacing their overhead surveillance, the infantry would be blind—and at greater risk of getting lost or ambushed.

And that’s why a new tactic, recently on display somewhere apparently north of Lyman in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, is so ominous for Ukrainian forces. “For the first time in four years, I’ve witnessed that Russians deployed DJI drone operators into an assault/infiltration group to have a cover and guidance from the drone,” Ukrainian drone operator Kriegsforscher wrote.