Anti-aircraft FPV drones have long been a fully-fledged weapon against russian reconnaissance UAVs. Today, the Defense Forces of Ukraine are forming entire batteries of FPV drones that primarily destroy enemy targets in the air. This new unit of the Rubizh Brigade in the National Guard of Ukraine is featured in a story on Army TV.
"We are probably the first in the National Guard to officially integrate this into our staff, and as far as I know, four or five brigades have already done the same," the commander of the FPV drone battery with the call sign Fara, who was previously the commander of a man-portable air defense systems battery, said.
Read more: Ukrainian Forces Halt russian Assault in Donetsk Region, Destroy 71 Drones (Video)
"We have not hidden the MANPADS far away, as we know how to use both, so we have both missiles and FPVs in our positions. When aircraft fly in, we work with missiles; when small drones fly in, we shoot them down with FPV drones," the military said.
The commander of the battery unit with call sign Barber says he has been working with anti-aircraft drones for about two months. "When our battery was restructured, I decided to try it, and it works pretty well." The military notes that drones are a rather difficult target for anti-aircraft FPVs, and lately, they have been maneuvering extensively.
It should be noted that russians are now mass-producing anti-aircraft evasion systems based on machine vision for their Zala reconnaissance drones. In particular, the video demonstrates the operation of such a system when an anti-aircraft drone operator approached an enemy drone and the latter performed a sharp maneuver to avoid being hit.
As Ukrainian military with the call sign Fara recalls, one of the very first enemy drones they shot down only when the anti-aircraft drone battery was formed was a rather rare Merlin-VR drone.
"These were the first test flights to prove that this battery was supposed to exist, we were given a trial period and our first drone was Merlin," the military says. As of today, they have destroyed two or three these experimental russian drones.
Earlier Defense Express reported how the Mavic team of Legion of Defense of Ukraine detects and punishes russian invaders.
Read more: The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine Reveals What Type of Missiles russia Replenishes the Most
