In Kourakhove, qualified by Volodymyr Zelensky of zone “the most difficult” From 1,000 kilometers of front, a team of drone pilots harass Russian armored vehicles day and night. “On average, we manage to hit ten to fifteen daily. Our record in one day is thirty-eight”explains a pilot who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons.
The imbalance in favor of the Russian Armed Forces (FAR) remains overwhelming: around fifteen Russian soldiers for one Ukrainian soldier. At least that’s the feeling of drone operators, who estimate the number of Russian armored vehicles in their sector at around a hundred. “We only have drones to stop the enemy’s advance. »
Despite the violence of the fighting and the extreme fatigue that can be seen on everyone’s faces, the state of mind of the combatants in this drone unit remains stable. Exchanges between soldiers are punctuated with humor, both to decompress psychologically and to maintain team spirit. They are hardly inclined to talk politics, preferring to talk about “feeling of duty” to explain their endurance on the front.
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The team of pilots is hidden in a village house, 7 kilometers from the Russian lines. Camouflage is the sine qua non condition for surviving close to the enemy. Rotation movements are carried out, except in an absolute emergency, during hours of reduced visibility, that is to say just before dawn or at dusk. The rest of the time, enemy drones buzz in the air, scanning for any movement, vehicle or equipment that betrays the presence of soldiers. To reduce the risk of being hit by a drone, vehicles travel at maximum speed.
Very rapid technological developments have favored the emergence of very powerful electronic jamming and recognition systems, capable of cutting off communication between the pilot and his drone, causing the loss of the second or the geolocation of the first. As a result, the Ukrainians began to explore another type of guidance using an optical wire connecting the drone to its pilot. The video image thus remains of very high quality and the device is insensitive to radio interference. The disadvantages are numerous: the spool carrying the wire is heavy, it reduces the payload and the range of the drone. In addition, the latter loses maneuverability and its wire can get caught on rough terrain and tree branches. However, the use of wired drones is growing rapidly on both sides of the front to reach targets that are not very mobile and heavily protected.
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