Aerial drone operators of Ukraine's 411th Unmanned Systems Regiment use the Danish RQ-35 Heidrun reconnaissance system. A story by ArmyTV dives into the details of their nightly operations and Heidrun's performance in particular.
Working as two, crews deploy the system mainly at night, says RQ-35 Heidrun operator Pavlo: "A crew makes an average of five sorties per night. Generally, the intensity of work and the number of sorties depends on many factors," including enemy and allied electronic warfare activity in the area.
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If the connection between the radio station and the UAV is lost, the drone will return to the mission route on its own, according to the data input before takeoff.
The video shows the second sortie of the RQ-35 Heidrun drone overnight, the launch preparations and subsequent actions of the operators. One controls the drone itself, while the other steers its camera.
Pavlo adds they've been flying in this area for about a year and practically know it "like the back of their hand".
"We know their logistical routes inside and out, we know at what time the rotations take place. This helps us find and neutralize them," he notes, speaking of the russian enemies and their activity.
The drone team notes that they have software developed by specialists from their regiment that allows reconnaissance crews, operational duty officers, and strike weapon teams to communicate with each other in real time and thus minimize the time between a target's detection and destruction. Among these targets are enemy artillery systems, personnel during rotation, cars and trucks, etc.
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