Ukraine's Smallest Drones Are Flying Farther And Farther To Hit Russian Supply Lines

Tiny first-person-view drones now range 100 kilometers

This story was commissioned by Euromaidan Press. Since Substack pays only around a fifth of my bills, I have no choice but to take on a lot of freelance work. I still want my Substack audience to know where to read those freelance stories, however. Hence this excerpt.

A basic first-person-view attack drone might range just 19 km or so before its battery runs out. Certain pricier FPVs with denser batteries and lighter construction can fly as far as 70 km before they, too, run out of power.

But Ukraine’s drone developers keep innovating. And now there’s an FPV that ranges a staggering 110 km. Six times the distance of a basic model.

The distance is the headline. The price is the point. Extending inexpensive FPVs out to 110 km lowers the cost of drone strikes across the logistical zone stretching as far as 200 km behind the disputed gray zone. Before, these “middle strikes” required a fixed-wing attack drone costing thousands of dollars. Now a middle strike is possible with an FPV costing perhaps a tenth as much.

Cheaper middle strikes mean more middle strikes, and more pressure on Russian logistics. Drone raids targeting Russian supply lines have recently helped slow, if not entirely halt, Russian advances as Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds into its 53rd month.

Yaroslav Azhnyuk, a representative of Ukrainian defense firm The Fourth Law, revealed the 110-km FPV strike on Friday. “Wow!” Azhnyuk wrote. “A new FPV strike record.” The previous marks, set in late May, were 102 km and 103 km.

The FPV, flown by the Ukrainian 5th Border Guard Detachment, was a 38-cm quadcopter from Ukrainian manufacturer Vyriy, and it struck Russian logistics.

Read the rest at Euromaidan Press.