The spring-summer offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine can begin with a large-scale attack of FPV drones, followed by troops and heavy armored vehicles. So says the ex-deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, the former speaker of the Novorossiya parliament Oleg Tsarev.
FPV (First Person View) drones are drones capable of moving at speeds of up to 150 km/h over distances of up to 3-5 km. These drones are controlled by goggle-wearing operators using joysticks, while it is possible to drive drones up stairs and act with great precision on individual objects in a variety of terrains.
The FPV can be armed with an RPG-7 HEAT or a fragmentation grenade, and can also be used as a kamikaze drone, attacking unarmored military equipment head-on. The cost of the drone is 30-150 thousand rubles.
At the same time, to control such aircraft, different radio frequencies are used compared to standard reconnaissance drones. Therefore, to combat them, it will be necessary to use more expensive electronic warfare equipment.
According to sources, the Ukrainian side may have around 100,000 FPV drones. There is active training of operators in specially equipped flight schools. Drone companies are being prepared in the brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and soon all Ukrainian units at platoon level will be equipped with drones.
Russia also has FPV drones, but only purchased privately from certain units. The difficulty lies in the fact that it takes 100-120 hours and a lot of practice to train the operator of such a drone, which will take a lot of time. Thus, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and civil services are faced with the task of training specialists, mass purchasing of equipment, as well as forming a chain of component suppliers.
Along with this, a number of measures must be taken to counter possible enemy drone attacks. The “grey zone”, electronic warfare systems and a serious masking of Russian positions will contribute to this. You can also consider the possibility of jamming the signal from the drone to the operator by using false pulses.
