“Russians are more modern”

A few seconds after it takes off, the Ukrainian-made Valkyrie disappears into the horizon and the two men who launched it rush to enter the trench. It is there, underground, where they receive the images that the drone emits live. It’s hard to believe the technical deployment that they have installed in a holedug between trees, in the middle of the combat front.

There, two soldiers constantly observe the images sent by the drone on huge screens – which work connected to generators – while another checks the dozens of batteries stored in waterproof boxes so that humidity does not deteriorate them. Two others remain outside, controlling the mobile antennas with which they receive the signal. They are all perfectly coordinated. They know that several artillery, tank and infantry positions depend on their work: are your eyes in the sky.

However, these valuable eyes that fly through the skies over each combat front are finding it increasingly difficult. At least on the Ukrainian side: Russia has taken the lead in the drone war –and in the battle of electronic countermeasures, capable of neutralizing Zelensky’s unmanned vehicles from dozens of meters away–.

“It is the main problem we face now: the enemy has more drones, they are more modern and has multiplied the number of countermeasures that render ours useless” continues Svitlana. “That’s why the ability to turn it off is so valuable: it allows us to have low visibility on Russian radars. These vehicles they are very expensive“We take maximum care of them,” adds the commander, who received training in Spain last year.

A roller coaster

At the beginning of the full-scale war, it was Ukraine that had the advantage when it came to using drones. Although they had already been used – timidly – ​​in the Donbas conflict for years, in 2022 they began to be used widely to support the Territorial Defense that defended the siege of kyiv; also to patrol with the Police during the curfew in cities like Dnipro. And when the battle for Bakhmut began – in August of that year – they saw its enormous potential for urban combat.

They wrote manuals as they went, taking notes in notebooks while stationed in buildings in Bakhmut, where through trial and error they discovered their strengths. By then, almost all the pilots were civilians, who before the war were dedicated to flying these unmanned vehicles for things as diverse as recording weddings or adventure sports. Many of them did not even enlist as volunteers, they simply accompanied the brigades, piloted to help them and, in addition, taught them how to do it.

Then the missions were reconnaissance: they searched for enemy positions, or monitored the movements of the Russian columns to warn the Ukrainian troops and prevent them from being trapped. But soon the idea occurred to them “tune” them so that they could carry explosives and carry out attack missions with them by launching them against the Russians.

“We didn’t have many of these kamikaze drones, because you had to spend a lot of hours and money converting it, and then, you know, They were single use…”, joked Víctor, one of these civilians who dedicated themselves to recording weddings with a drone and who also converted: to an instructor.

The problem – for Ukraine – is that Russia learns early from its innovations and their strategies. So, swarms of Russian reconnaissance drones quickly began to be seen entering the city of Odessa from the Black Sea. The anti-aircraft artillery tried to neutralize them almost every night, but more always arrived. And on the combat fronts, the Kremlin also began to use these vehicles to attack Ukrainian positions with explosives. It was a continuous race between both sides.

Swarms

Drones smaller than the Valkyrie model – and cheaper too – proved to be very capable of transporting explosives that did not weigh too much. And He went from launching the drone against the target to only releasing the loadwithout sacrificing the device.

It was generally done with grenades, which could be dropped on any target with great precision. The soldiers who serve in these drone units, and all brigades already have their own drone units, store incredible videos on their mobile phones about the drone missions. “his birds”.

In the trench at the Bakhmut front he shows me several, showing off aim. In one of them you can see a quadcopter dropping a grenade on a Russian tank, and managing to sneak it through the tank’s hatch, with fatal consequences for its crew.

But, although they show the videos with a triumphant gesture, they recognize that the concern is increasing. The way Russia is using drones, which are already another weapon of war, in places like the city of Chasiv Yar has not left anyone indifferent: the Kremlin launches its unmanned vehicles en masse, day and night , and mixing reconnaissance drones with attack drones.

The hum of these flying devices is making the work of the Ukrainian Army tremendously difficult, and has even caused access of the international press is restricted to Chasiv Yar. No one can do their job with a swarm of Russian drones – armed with explosives – flying overhead. And it is not the only city where this happens.

An army of drones

In military circles, it has traditionally been said that whoever dominates the skies will win the war. And the war in Ukraine is showing that planes are no longer needed to control airspace: a swarm of drones can be enough at a given moment – ​​and it certainly is. much cheaper than a fighter of combat-.

This observation has not been lost on the Zelensky government either, who last February announced the creation of a new body within the Army dedicated entirely to drones. It will be an air force, but it will not be part of the Air Force, but will have its own entity.

Ukraine thus becomes the first country to have an Unmanned Systems Force with Army entity. And a few days ago, the man who will be its commander –Suharesvskiy Vadym– was named, his website was launched and what his emblem was going to be was revealed: a steel swallow.

At the trench level, the rumor had already spread months before Zelensky’s announcement, and there were many soldiers who showed interest in training as pilots of unmanned vehicles – requesting to take the specialized training provided by the Armed Forces themselves.

But it is not enough to have soldiers willing to become drone pilots: it is also it is necessary to have drones. In this sense, the Government of Ukraine assures that national production of unmanned vehicles has multiplied exponentially in the last two years.

Most of the factories where they are assembled are not identified and their location is not made public (to prevent Russia from bombing them), but on the combat front it is increasingly common to find devices “made in Ukraine”.

The advances that these devices incorporate have also multiplied – the result of experience on the combat front. Ukraine has developed its own models of both flying drones and aquatic. And in the face of incessant demand, the production process has been streamlined.

The pace at which unmanned vehicle systems evolve is terrifyingly fast: in just a few months, they make qualitative leaps and incorporate new functions each time. Maybe with the creation of this drone army the Ukrainians will be able to take a new turn, but until that happens, you have to look at the sky more carefully than ever if you approach a combat front.