A russian military journalist interviewed several troops fighting in Ukraine who thought up a way to get their drone literally attached to their unit. In a video below shared by the Ukrainian military, we can see a civilian quadcopter tied to a fishing rod with a line.
Read more: Baykar Hands Over Bayraktar TB2 to Ukraine's Military for Free Again - This Time from Poles Who Already Collect Money to Buy Helicopters for Ukraine
The reason to take this measure is, from an operator’s words, that drones often get lost when too far away or get affected by Ukrainian electronic warfare systems:
"Sometimes, at altitude, [the drone] loses connection and just flies away by itself. Also due to a good EW system the enemy has deployed. Happened before, you only raise [the drone] up to 30 meters, and it’s done – it instantly loses connection."
The troops say "it works": once the connection is lost, they pull the vehicle back to them.
Ukrainian 72nd Motorized Brigade, when sharing the footage, only thanked the propagandist journalist for the hint to the exact location where russian positions are.
Defense Express reminds that Ukrainian forces use a variety of EW equipment to counter russian drones: from Lithuanian drone-jamming guns to some unspecified American EW jammers.
At the same time, russians tend to extensively use civilian drones, vulnerable to jamming, due to the lack of military ones. The journalist in the video himself calls any drone a "valuable and rare thing".
Meanwhile Ukrainians receive more complex systems prone to jamming, and even try to assemble their own "Army of Drones" which includes specialized recon systems FlyEye. Though fair to say Ukrainian forces do rely on civilian drones, too, and even encourage everyone to "dronate" their vehicles to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Read more: Ukraine to Create its Own "Army of Drones"
