In a meadow on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, a van kicks up dust as it slides down a slope, its passengers singing along to the tune of the hit 1980s sitcom “Police Academy.” Not an American police vehicle, but a Ukrainian Army Mitsubishi L200, on the lookout for a quadcopter surveillance drone.
These soldiers are training to be the eyes of the Ukrainian military, which has embarked on a massive expansion of its fleet of surveillance drones. Today, the ten soldiers are learning to pilot their machines from a moving vehicle.
If since the beginning of the conflict there has been much talk about the Turkish combat drones of the Ukrainian army, which inflicted serious damage on Russian armored vehicles, Ukraine was before the war deprived of surveillance drones.
Without a dedicated unit, you must rely on patriotism and donations for equipment and pilot training. The soldiers followed by AFP follow the courses of the Global Drones Academy, a company run by Anton Veklenko, a drone pilot since 2015 and “highly in demand” since the start of the war.
“Hard to spot”
Drone photography specialist, the latter, 35, now teaches how to become a pilot, but above all how not to become the target of Russian fire.
These small drones allow Kyiv to conduct reconnaissance along the front lines, spot Russian troops and equipment, and even direct artillery fire from a distance. They save Ukrainian lives, but they are expensive and few.
Both sides have also used smaller radio-controlled machines, but Kyiv says Russian electronic countermeasures jamming their communications systems are becoming more effective.
In early July, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky solicited donations to buy a fleet of military drones around the world to form a Ukrainian “drone army.” Some 13.5 million euros were raised, which will finance a first series of 200 machines equipped with thermal cameras, GPS and mapping software.
‘dronations’
According to Yury Shchygol, head of Ukraine’s cybersecurity and intelligence service, a contract has already been signed with Polish manufacturers, and four tactical drones have already been received. His teams are studying possible contracts in Portugal, the United States, Japan and Israel, he added during a meeting with the press this week.
Volodymyr Zelensky has also called for “dronations” of smaller devices in Ukraine, the United States or Poland. Hobbyists and commercial drone pilots have begun donating their devices to bolster the “Drone Army,” but Ukraine is aiming higher.
The campaign even took an urgent turn this week, with warnings from US officials saying Russia plans to acquire hundreds of combat drones from Iran.
Learning to operate civilian drones takes two weeks, Yuri Shchygol said, while pilots of military reconnaissance drones will receive a month’s training. But he believes that Ukraine’s Drone Army will bear fruit beyond the conflict with Russia. After all, he wants to believe, “Elon Musk himself said that future wars will be decided by drones.”
Source: BFM TV
