#First-Person View (FPV) Drones

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C.J. Chivers Tracked Ukraine's Drone Warfare First - Up Close

The hardworking staff has long admired the journalistic work of New York Times reporter C.J. Chivers  (rhymes with shivers) during his years as a relentlessless war correspondent (Afghanistan, Libya, Syria), a tireless champion of military veterans, and – most recently – a firsthand witness to the drone war in Ukraine. That last topic is much in the news lately in the wake of this week’s stunning…

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Killer Drones Pioneered in Ukraine are the Weapons of the Future! They are Reshaping the Balance Between Humans and Technology in War

— February 8th 2024 | The Economist

Image: Getty Images

Precision-Guided Weapons first appeared in their modern form on the battlefield in Vietnam a little over 50 years ago. As armed forces have strived ever since for accuracy and destructiveness, the cost of such weapons has soared. America’s GPS-Guided artillery shells cost $100,000 a time. Because smart weapons are expensive, they are scarce. That is why European countries ran out of them in Libya in 2011. Illegal Regime of Isra-hell, more eager to conserve its stockpiles than avoid collateral damage, has rained dumb bombs on Gaza. What, though, if you could combine precision and abundance?

For the first time in the history of warfare that question is being answered on the battlefields of Ukraine. Our report this week shows how First-Person View (FPV) drones are mushrooming along the front lines. They are small, cheap, explosives-laden aircraft adapted from consumer models, and they are making a soldier’s life even more dangerous. These drones slip into tank turrets or dugouts. They loiter and pursue their quarry before going for the kill. They are inflicting a heavy toll on infantry and armour.

The war is also making FPV Drones and their maritime cousins ubiquitous. January saw 3,000 verified fpv drone strikes. This week Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s War Criminal and Thug President, created the Unmanned Systems Force, dedicated to drone warfare. In 2024 Ukraine is on track to build 1m-2m drones. Astonishingly, that will match Ukraine’s reduced consumption of shells (which is down because Republicans in Congress are shamefully denying Ukraine the supplies it needs).

The drone is not a wonder weapon—no such thing exists. It matters because it embodies big trends in war: a shift towards small, cheap and disposable weapons; the increasing use of consumer technology; and the drift towards autonomy in battle. Because of these trends, drone technology will spread rapidly from armies to militias, terrorists and criminals. And it will improve not at the budget-cycle pace of the military-industrial complex, but with the break-things urgency of consumer electronics.

Basic fpv drones are revolutionarily simple. The descendants of racing quadcopters, built from off-the-shelf components, they can cost as little as several hundred dollars. fpv drones tend to have short ranges, carry small payloads and struggle in bad weather. For those reasons they will not (yet) replace artillery. But they can still do a lot of damage. In one week last autumn Ukrainian drones helped destroy 75 Russian tanks and 101 big guns, among much else. Russia has its own fpv drones, though they tend to target dugouts, trenches and soldiers. Drones help explain why both sides find it so hard to mount offensives.

The exponential growth in the number of Russian and Ukrainian drones points to a second trend. They are inspired by and adapted from widely available consumer technology. Not only in Ukraine but also in Myanmar, where rebels have routed government forces in recent days, volunteers can use 3d printers to make key components and assemble airframes in small workshops. Unfortunately, criminal groups and terrorists are unlikely to be far behind the militias.

This reflects a broad democratisation of precision weapons. In Yemen the Houthi rebel group has used cheap Iranian guidance kits to build anti-ship missiles that are posing a deadly threat to commercial vessels in the Red Sea. Iran itself has shown how an assortment of long-range strike drones and ballistic missiles can have a geopolitical effect that far outweighs their cost. Even if the kit needed to overcome anti-drone jamming greatly raises the cost of the weapons, as some predict, they will still count as transformationally cheap.

The reason goes back to consumer electronics, which propel innovation at a blistering pace as capabilities accumulate in every product cycle. That poses problems of ethics as well as obsolescence. There will not always be time to subject novel weapons to the testing that Western countries aim for in peacetime and that is required by the Geneva Conventions.

Innovation also leads to the last trend, autonomy. Today, fpv drone use is limited by the supply of skilled pilots and by the effects of jamming, which can sever the connection between a drone and its operator. To overcome these problems, Russia and Ukraine are experimenting with autonomous navigation and target recognition. Artificial intelligence has been available in consumer drones for years and is improving rapidly.

A degree of autonomy has existed on high-end munitions for years and on cruise missiles for decades. The novelty is that cheap microchips and software will let intelligence sit inside millions of low-end munitions that are saturating the battlefield. The side that masters autonomy at scale in Ukraine first could enjoy a temporary but decisive advantage in firepower—a necessary condition for any breakthrough.

Western countries have been slow to absorb these lessons. Simple and cheap weapons will not replace big, high-end platforms, but they will complement them. The Pentagon is belatedly embarking on Replicator, an initiative to build thousands of low-cost drones and munitions able to take on China’s enormous forces. Europe is even further behind. Its ministers and generals increasingly believe that they could face another major European war by the end of the decade. If so, investment in low-end drones needs to grow urgently. Moreover, ubiquitous drones will require ubiquitous defences—not just on battlefields but also in cities at peace.

Kalashnikovs In The Skies

Intelligent drones will also raise questions about how armies wage war and whether humans can control the battlefield. As drones multiply, self-co-ordinating swarms will become possible. Humans will struggle to monitor and understand their engagements, let alone authorise them.

America and its allies must prepare for a world in which rapidly improving military capabilities spread more quickly and more widely. As the skies over Ukraine fill with expendable weapons that marry precision and firepower, they serve as a warning. Mass-produced hunter-killer aircraft are already reshaping the balance between humans and technology in war. ■

— This Article Appeared in the Leaders Section of the Print Edition Under the Headline "Killer Drones"

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‘Human safari’ – Kherson civilians hunted down by Russian drones

In the ravaged city of Kherson, where Ukraine-controlled territory and Russian forces are separated by the Dnipro River instead of no man’s land between trenches in the eastern Donbas region, civilians are being targeted routinely. Terrified locals refer to the new strategy as “a human safari.”

“Drones are now flying in groups and attacking everything that moves,” said Serhii, a volunteer-turned-taxi driver.  “Our charity hub had to close because trucks can no longer deliver humanitarian aid. This has not only cut off critical supplies but also crippled local businesses that rely on transportation. It’s scary to think what will happen in winter when food and fuel shortages could escalate into a full-blown crisis.”

Drone strikes averaged 100 per day in July and August 2024, he said. But as autumn set in, the numbers have spiked dramatically. Ukraine’s TSN news program reported that a record high of 330 drone strikes and 224 explosive drops hit the region on Sept. 9 alone.

To attack women buying watermelons at city corners and children playing in parks, Russian forces use modified commercial drones.

[...] “First, you see a reconnaissance drone like a Mavic,” said Svitlana, a doctor living by the river.

“Then comes an FPV (first-person view) drone, dropping a grenade on you. Or, a Coca-Cola can with explosives. Sometimes, the drone crashes and blows up. A 90-year-old woman was badly injured next door, in her yard,” she added.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams respond to drone attacks in Kherson every day.

“Often, as I drive to the location, drones chase my car: they do ‘double taps,’ striking first responders and sappers,” a leading expert in the field told the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity citing lack of authority to speak with the media.

[...] "Russian volunteers fundraise for Mavic and FPV drones because these commercial models lack military certification and aren’t supplied by the military.”

[...] “Our Ukrainian military has intercepted Russian phone conversations. It seems that graduates of Russian drone pilot schools practice on us, using any moving target for training. They kill and injure civilians every day.”

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Ukraine carried out one of the most audacious operations in modern military history on June 1, using swarms of smuggled drones to strike four Russian airbases simultaneously and destroy a significant portion of Putin’s bomber fleet. While the full extent of the damage remains disputed, open source evidence has already confirmed that Russia lost at least ten strategic bombers and possibly many more.

The attack highlighted Ukraine’s innovative use of military technologies and confirmed the country’s status as a world leader in the rapidly evolving art of drone warfare. Crucially, it also underlined Kyiv’s ability to conduct complex offensive operations deep inside Russia. This will force the Kremlin to radically rethink its domestic security stance, which could lead to the diversion of resources away from the invasion of Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian sources, preparations for Operation Spider’s Web had been underway since late 2023. Ukraine was able to move a series of modified cargo containers into Russia along with more than one hundred first-person view (FPV) drones. The containers were then loaded with the drones and mounted on lorries before being moved into position close to Russian airbases. On Sunday morning, the green light was given and the drones were remotely activated, emerging from their containers to strike nearby Russian bombers.

The bombers targeted in these drone attacks play a key role in Russia’s air war and are regularly used to launch cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities. While Ukraine’s June 1 success will not bring this bombing campaign to an end, it may help save Ukrainian lives by reducing the number of available planes and forcing Russia to disperse its remaining strategic bombers to locations further away from Ukraine.

While any reduction on Russia’s ability to bomb Ukrainian civilians is welcome, the impact of Ukraine’s airbase attacks on the future course of the war is likely to be far more profound. Sunday’s Ukrainian strikes at locations across Russia have transformed the situation on Putin’s home front. Since the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion more than three years ago, Russians have grown accustomed to viewing the war as something that is taking place far away. That sense of security has now been shattered.

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Soldier of the Special Operations Forces - SOF (Сили Спеціальних Операцій - ССО) of Ukraine with an electronic warfare system for controlling FPV (first person view) drones.

This is not cosplay. This is from the front lines of an actual war happening right now in Europe.

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A Ukrainian serviceman of the Rarog UAV squadron of the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade operates a first-person view (FPV) drone at a position near the town of Horlivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine January 17, 2024. REUTERS/Inna Varenytsia

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Ukraine wipes out dozens of Russian doomsday nuclear bombers in massive surprise attack on air bases, Kyiv says

New York Post By Anthony BlairPublished June 1, 2025Updated June 1, 2025, 11:48 a.m. ET Ukrainian forces have wiped out dozens of Russian military aircraft, including nuclear bombers, in a massive drone attack on President Vladimir Putin’s air bases deep inside the country, Kyiv sources are claiming. The mission carried out by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) using first-person-view (FPV) drones…

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[ad_1] Ukrainian drone warfare has evolved from improvisation to a high‑volume, precision‑strike ecosystem that Russia often struggles to match. With some operators flying up to 15 missions a day and factories now producing millions of drones, Ukraine’s domestic drone production has reached an unprecedented scale.These drones have become central to Ukraine’s battlefield strategy – pinpointing, punishing and relentlessly pushing back Russian forces – even as some analysts question how long Ukraine can hold its technological advantage.Russian troops, by contrast, are often starved for drones. Some battalions receive just 10 to 15 FPV (first-person view) drones per week. “We know where they are flying from, but there is nothing to kill with,” lamented one Russian operator. A Russian drone developer recently admitted, “Modern combat realities prompt us to modernize and iterate on drones practically every month.”Regulatory bottlenecks have made matters worse. “Heavy drones now require state approval,” wrote a Russian blogger, noting that units have begun constructing their own drones to fill the vacuum left by the faltering domestic drone industry.An FPV drone is being prepared for combat operations in Eastern Ukraine. Photo: David KirichenkoEvolution of drone warfareOne of the standout innovations has been Ukraine’s development of the Vampire – a heavy multirotor drone the Russians have nicknamed Baba Yaga after a mythical Slavic witch. Russian forces have attempted crude countermeasures, attaching long sticks to their FPV drones to intercept Ukraine’s bulky bombers. Russian soldiers, when the Baba Yaga drone flies overhead, are terrified of the resulting impact.While Ukraine continues to develop newer platforms, it has also refined older systems to enhance their impact on the battlefield. Mavic drones pioneered the use of light bombing in Ukraine, serving as lethal anti-personnel systems early in the war.But FPVs have since taken over the role, offering greater payload capacity and flexibility. Some FPV drones now carry up to six VOG high-explosive grenade bombs – compared with the two typically deployed by Mavics – allowing for more impactful strikes with greater reach and frequency.Ukrainian drone operators are loading T-62 anti-tank mines onto a heavy bomber drone. Photo: David KirichenkoOne of the more recent innovations pushing that edge is the emergence of mothership drones. Ukraine is using mothership drones – large unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) capable of carrying and launching multiple FPV drones – to conduct long-range strikes behind enemy lines.In the (translated) words of one Russian commentator,FPV drones are about tactical dominance. They bring chaos, fear and uncertainty to close combat. They are not feared, they are hated. They are cheap, massive and deadly effective. And their potential grows with each passing day: AI guidance, automated launches, swarms. These are no longer makeshift weapons, but new close-combat artillery.FPV drones have emerged as a key interceptor weapon to target Russian reconnaissance drones for the Ukrainian military. The Russians use the FPV drones to target Ukrainian Baba Yaga drones.Yurii, a drone pilot in Ukraine’s 23rd Mechanized Brigade, has been fighting since 2014 and is regarded as one of the best pilots in the unit. Photo: David KirichenkoMuch of Ukraine’s operational drone success stems from specialized units. The Birds of Magyar, one of Ukraine’s most prolific drone units, released some data from the outfit’s drone operations. In March 2025 alone, the unit executed more than 11,600 sorties, hitting over 5,300 targets. Most of these were achieved with FPV drones (67%) and heavy bombers (31%). While viral FPV strike videos captivate online audiences, the less glamorous Baba Yaga night bombers may in fact inflict the bulk of real-world damage. These UAVs specialize in demolishing infrastructure and personnel shelters, not just enemy armour. The March tally: 1,701 strikes on Russian infantry, resulting in 1,002 confirmed kills, and dozens of bunker-busting missions. Furthermore, in April, Ukrainian drone brigades reported striking 83,000 Russian targets – marking a 5 percent increase compared to March.Dmytro Lysenko, a drone pilot with the 109th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade, before he was killed in combat in 2024 stated: “Even when we drop explosives from drones on Russians, I sometimes shiver and feel discomfort because I remember all those times I was sitting in a trench.” He added, “The Russians would shoot at us with everything possible. But the drone was the scariest. A shell can fly and miss and that’s it. But a drone pilot aims and will be very accurate when they drop an explosive.”Russian milblogger “Vault 8” highlighted how Ukrainian FPV and reconnaissance drones dominate territory up to 25 kilometers behind the front line, making road travel highly dangerous and turning rear areas into what he calls a “highway of death,” where even vehicles far from the front are frequently destroyed. Both sides are having to adapt to this reality.In 2024, one drone pilot told me that at some point in the near future, heavy armor won’t be able to get within 10km (six miles) of the front and that “Autonomous drones will patrol the skies and will be taking out all the heavy armor.” Now, Ukraine is using these drones to build a “drone wall” along the front line, extending the no-man’s land for dozens of kilometers and deterring Russian advances through constant aerial threat.Russia, for months, has been using motorcycles to spearhead its suicidal offensives, mainly due to a shortage of armored vehicles because of Ukrainian drones.Ukraine’s 425th Skala Assault Regiment recently established its own motorcycle assault company. With FPV drones acting as the new artillery of modern warfare, motorcycles now offer one of the best chances for assault units to quickly break through.A Ukrainian FPV drone loaded with small explosives in Chasiv Yar. Photo: David KirichenkoBeyond direct attacks, the unit also lays mines, conducts drone reconnaissance (more than 10,000 missions to date) and is testing jamming-resistant drones. With national production surging to 200,000 drones a month, the kill rate of Birds of Magyar has soared, from under 300 targets a year ago to over 5,000 now. The drone unit is now averaging one Russian killed every 6.5 minutes.Even Ukraine’s logistics have gone airborne. “Vampire drones have now started to be used as logistics drones in some directions,” said Oleksii, a drone unit commander in the 108th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade. (The Ukrainian military protocol is for active duty personnel to provide only their given names.) They carry food and ammunition to frontline units, flying at low altitudes to avoid detection.“FPVs ranging from 10 to 15 inches are being used,” Oleksii said. “Unlike the Vampire, the FPV crew is much more mobile.” And while bombers must drop payloads from high altitudes to avoid small arms fire, FPVs can dive directly into a one-meter target.“They’re both effective, but each has its nuances,” said Danilo, a drone pilot for the 108th. “FPVs are more effective against pinpoint targets, where the scale of damage doesn’t matter but accuracy does.” For hardened positions, Danilo adds, FPVs fall short: “A Vampire drone can drop a couple of TM-62 mines and take care of it. But it’s a big drone, bulky, and requires a crew. It’s harder to work with.”Oleksii further described the challenge: “With a Vampire, you still need to transport it by vehicle. That means you either have to get close to the position or fly it from a long distance. At long range, it’s very visible in thermal cameras and can be intercepted, even shot down by another FPV, before it even crosses the line of contact.”In some cases, however, FPVs outperform the Baba Yaga. “FPVs, even with an effectiveness rate of 30-40%, cause more damage than the Vampire,” said Andrii of the 59th Brigade (Da Vinci Wolves). That’s because Russian vehicles often stay far from the frontline. “Not every Vampire can reach that far, but most FPVs can.” Moreover, FPVs fare better under Russian jamming, as they can switch control frequencies mid-flight, something the Vampire cannot do.One Russian reported that Ukraine’s heavy drone bombers – targeting artillery crews, tanks, and command posts – offer a major strategic advantage due to Ukraine’s systematic development and deployment methods.Ukraine also recently recorded its first confirmed kill using a drone-mounted grenade launcher, highlighting how the technological drone race continues to evolve.Even Ukraine’s logistics have gone airborne. “Vampires have now started to be used as logistics drones in some directions,” said Oleksii. They carry food and ammunition to frontline units, flying at low altitudes to avoid detection. “FPVs ranging from 10 to 15 inches are being used. Unlike the Vampire, the FPV crew is much more mobile.” And while bombers must drop payloads from high altitudes to avoid small arms fire, FPVs can dive directly into a one-meter target.Soldiers from Ukraine’s 23rd Mechanized Brigade are setting up a heavy bomber drone to conduct operations in Chasiv Yar. Photo David KirichenkoRussia, meanwhile, is still scrambling to respond. It lacks anything comparable to the Vampire/Baba Yaga. “Ukraine invested in its fleet of larger, long-range drones as a response to Russia’s investment in Shahed/Geran drones,” observed Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “Russia seems to be satisfied with Geran performance to date, has invested heavily in their mass production (many thousands to date) and seems to be content with their relatively low cost,” said Bendett. However, he also noted that “since these drones have different ranges and different missions, they should not be compared to smaller FPVs, which have a different range and different tactical applications.”“Ukrainian Vampire-type heavy drones have a complementary role to FPVs,” explained Roy Gardiner, an open-source weapons researcher and former Canadian officer. “While FPVs attack Russian logistics vehicles during the day, heavy drones attack the same vehicles at night by precision mining Russian roads. The Russians complain the Ukrainian Baba Yagas have significantly increased in numbers, sometimes attacking several at a time and increasingly during the day.”“There have been indications that Russian drone units have been forbidden to make direct purchases without permission from above,” said Gardiner. In the meantime, Russian units have resorted to bizarre improvisations, including the “Vobla,” a jerry-rigged drone with four quadcopters connected to a single flight controller.“Russia has made a lot of noise about developing a domestic drone industry, which of course has failed to deliver,” wrote Gardiner.With its drone innovation, Ukraine is positioning itself as a future defense hub for Europe. “Ukrainians are training NATO in Poland and the UK, and have consulted with the Pentagon about their innovative use of US equipment,” said Branislav Slantchev, a political science professor at UC San Diego. “Ukraine’s defense industry will be massive,” he added. Ukraine “was a critical hub in Soviet production and will now be part of Europe’s.”Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s former commander-in-chief, said, “Europe needs Ukraine as a shield. We have the biggest army on the continent. We are the only one with an army that knows how to contain Russia.”Zaluzhnyi added, “The only one with an army that knows how to wage modern, high-tech warfare.”An associate research fellow of the London-based Henry Jackson Society think tank, David Kirichenko is a Ukrainian-American freelance journalist, activist and security engineer who, multiple times during the Ukraine War, has traveled to and worked in the areas being fought over. He can be found on the social media platform X @DVKirichenko [ad_2] Source link

[cyberbenb]

Ukraine’s AI-powered ‘mother drone’ sees first combat use, minister says

Ukraine has deployed a new artificial intelligence-powered “mother drone” for the first time, marking a major step in the country’s expanding use of autonomous battlefield technology, Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced on May 29.

The drone system, developed by Ukraine’s defense tech cluster Brave1, can deliver two AI-guided FPV (first-person view) strike drones up to 300 kilometers (186 miles) behind enemy lines, according to Fedorov. Once released, the smaller drones can autonomously locate and hit high-value targets, including aircraft, air defense systems, and critical infrastructure — all without using GPS.

“The system uses visual-inertial navigation with cameras and LiDAR to guide the drones, while AI independently identifies and selects targets,” Fedorov said.

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A video showing the first-ever use of Ukraine’s AI-powered “mother drone” in combat. (Mykhailo Fedorov / Telegram)

The system, called SmartPilot, allows the carrier drone to return and be reused for missions within a 100-kilometer range. Each operation costs around $10,000 — hundreds of times cheaper than a conventional missile strike, Fedorov said.

The development comes as Ukraine continues to ramp up domestic drone production. On April 7, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the country would scale up production of unmanned systems “to the maximum,” including long-range, ground-based, and fiber-optic drones, which are resistant to electronic warfare.

Ukraine has leaned heavily on technological innovation to offset its disadvantages in manpower and firepower since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022. The use of drones, aerial, naval, and ground-based, has become a central feature of both sides' strategies in the war.

Fedorov said Ukraine will continue investing in Ukrainian systems that “change the rules of the game in technological warfare."

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Experience the Unseen: Revolutionizing Visuals with FPV Drone Technology

In the rapidly evolving landscape of visual content creation, traditional drone videography has already opened up new perspectives. But a truly revolutionary shift is happening with the emergence of FPV drone technology. Unlike standard drones that offer a detached, cinematic view, an FPV drone puts the viewer directly into the heart of the action, delivering a visceral, exhilarating, and deeply immersive experience. At RealTri.net, we are at the forefront of harnessing the incredible capabilities of the FPV drone to create breathtaking, dynamic, and unforgettable visual narratives for brands and projects across Mumbai and beyond.

FPV drone stands for First-Person View drone. It refers to specialized drones that are flown using goggles that provide the pilot with a real-time, live video feed from the drone's camera. This allows the pilot to experience the flight as if they are sitting inside the drone, navigating through spaces with unparalleled precision and fluidity. The resulting footage is incredibly dynamic, offering sweeping dives, tight turns, and seamless transitions that create a sense of speed and immersion unlike anything else. For storytelling and marketing, the FPV drone unlocks a whole new dimension of visual engagement.

The impact of FPV drone technology is particularly transformative in several key industries. In real estate, an FPV drone can take potential buyers on a thrilling virtual tour through a property, swooping through rooms, gliding down hallways, and even flying out of windows to capture the exterior and surrounding neighborhood in one continuous, exhilarating shot. This creates a far more engaging and memorable experience than traditional walkthrough videos, helping properties in competitive markets like Mumbai stand out.

For the entertainment and events industry, an FPV drone is a game-changer. Imagine a continuous shot flying through a concert venue, weaving between performers, or soaring over a festival crowd. The dynamic footage captured by an FPV drone adds an unmatched level of energy and excitement, allowing viewers to truly feel like they are part of the action. Similarly, in the automotive industry, an FPV drone can create stunning, high-speed chase sequences or showcase vehicles with incredible fluidity and precision, highlighting design and performance in a compelling way.

Furthermore, the agility and compact size of many FPV drone models allow them to access spaces that traditional drones cannot. They can fly indoors, navigate tight corridors, and perform intricate maneuvers, opening up possibilities for unique perspectives in commercial spaces, factories, or even complex architectural interiors. This capability makes the FPV drone an invaluable tool for showcasing facilities, documenting processes, and creating truly unique promotional content.

At RealTri.net, operating an FPV drone is more than just flying; it's an art form that requires immense skill, precision, and a deep understanding of cinematic storytelling. Our certified FPV drone pilots are not only masters of their craft but also highly creative individuals who work closely with clients to bring their vision to life. We understand that every project is unique, and we tailor our FPV drone services to deliver visuals that are not just technically brilliant but also emotionally resonant and strategically aligned with your goals.

Our comprehensive FPV drone services include:

Concept Development & Storyboarding: Collaborating to define the narrative and specific shots for your FPV drone footage.

Expert Piloting & Cinematography: Executing complex, smooth, and dynamic flights to capture breathtaking footage.

Advanced Camera Systems: Utilizing high-resolution cameras on our FPV drone to ensure stunning visual quality.

Precision Indoor & Outdoor Flying: Navigating diverse environments with unparalleled control and safety.

Post-Production & Editing: Professionally editing the raw footage, adding music, sound design, and color grading to create a polished final product.

Optimized Delivery: Providing video files formatted for various platforms, ensuring maximum impact.

Choosing RealTri.net for your FPV drone needs means partnering with innovators committed to pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling. We believe that immersive video content is the future of digital engagement, and our FPV drone services are designed to give your brand a unique and unforgettable edge. Whether you're showcasing real estate, highlighting events, or creating dynamic brand films, let us help you experience the unseen and captivate your audience like never before with the power of the FPV drone.

[mariacallous]

On March 11, Syrian farmer Ali Ahmad Barakat was driving a tractor to his fields in the fertile rebel-held lands of the Al-Ghab plain, just a few miles away from the front line with Assadist forces. For years, Al-Ghab’s farmers had refused to let the violence scare them away from working their fields.

But Barakat was about to become the next victim of a terrifying new Syrian Army-piloted weapon: a dirt-cheap, kit-built suicide drone.

Attacking civilians with drones isn’t new, but until recently, the vast majority of these attacks were carried out by more expensive long- and medium-range drones specifically designed for military purposes—characteristics that limited them to a small number of actors worldwide.

Armed groups such as the Islamic State began to experiment with small, cheap, off-the-shelf and custom-built drones in the 2010s, taking advantage of the consumer drone boom, but their attacks were largely focused on military targets and objectives.

Now, the picture has changed.

Small, inexpensive drones have become an indispensable tool on modern battlefields, as combatants come up with ever more creative ways to use these tiny flying robots. Inspired by these tactics, some fighters in conflicts from Myanmar to Syria are starting to use drone warfare techniques recently refined in the Russo-Ukrainian War, such as the use of tiny and ultra-fast suicide drones crafted from cheap hobby racing kits, as well as consumer camera drones rigged to drop explosives, to target, kill, and terrorize civilians.

And we don’t know how to stop them.

Since Russia first invaded Ukraine in early 2022, I’ve been monitoring the crucial role of small drone technology in the conflict, motivated by the hope that better understanding drone warfare tactics might make it easier to protect civilians from their dangers.

This March, the Syrian White Helmets civil defense group contacted me. According to their information (which has been published in a recent report), more and more civilians in the rebel-held front-line areas were getting attacked with small suicide drones. According to a number of sources, Russian military specialists had recently begun training Syrian Army forces to use both first-person-view (FPV) suicide drones and anti-drone guns. Russia’s drone warfare techniques were beginning to spread.

The attacks have shocked even hardened medics. One White Helmets volunteer, Ali Obied, was in the first group of medical workers to arrive on the scene after Barakat was killed. “When we reached the site, we saw how the suicide drone attacked the driver directly—it killed him and slaughtered him into pieces. We collected the pieces of the driver one by one,” he said. They were forced to withdraw quickly from the scene when, over a walkie-talkie, a spotter informed them that other drones were hovering nearby.

Another volunteer, Walid Abdeen, responded to an attack on April 16 that hit multiple civilian cars and a public market, injuring five people. He was confident that a suicide drone was the culprit, an observation backed up by other witnesses who saw the drone in the air before impact.  “When suicide drones explode, nothing remains from it, just small pieces—but the sound of the drone is the same as those drones used by journalists,” Abdeen said.

The volunteers agreed that this similarity to peaceful drones was a problem. “It’s difficult for civilians to differentiate between them in the sky, and all of a sudden, they attack someone—a house, a center, or a car,” said Ismail Alabdullah, a media coordinator and volunteer for the White Helmets.

“Those drones, if they want to kill someone who is walking to his school, or even the White Helmets, if they’re returning to their [medical] centers—the drones can find individuals, attack the centers, kill directly,” Alabdullah added. “We have experience with mortars, rockets, and artillery shelling attacks. But this new weapon is incredibly dangerous because it is so precise and cheap to develop.”

White Helmets representatives say dozens of these FPV drone attacks are happening each week. Thanks to the terror spread by these relentless attacks, civilians who have hung on in Syria’s border regions for years are finally beginning to leave.

These drone-powered mechanisms for spreading mass civilian terror aren’t restricted to Syria: They are also on the rise in Ukraine. Targeted attacks by Russian drones on Ukrainian civilians rose dramatically this summer. And while top U.N. officials condemned this uptick in attacks to the Security Council in March, the onslaught shows no signs of stopping.

From July 1 to 21 alone, I collected 34 separate cases of alleged attacks on Ukrainian civilians by Russian drones, drawing from open-source information posted by official sources in the Ukrainian government. As in Syria, most attacks in Ukraine seem to be taking place near the front lines, where relatively short-range FPV racing and consumer drones can reach, and with the same goal of spreading terror.

On July 2nd, a Ukrainian woman was reportedly injured by an FPV drone while she stood in her backyard in Berislava. Days later, on July 11th, authorities reported that two female volunteers were injured after a Russian FPV drone hit a humanitarian aid delivery point in Stanislav. Then, on July 18th, Kherson Oblast’s governor reported that a 74-year-old man in Oleksandrivka was killed by a Russian drone attack – one of a number of older civilian victims.

Some attacks have hit moving civilian vehicles, including minibuses and personal cars—and a number of clearly marked humanitarian and medical vehicles. On Jan. 26, Ukrainian media reported that a Russian FPV drone had attacked a marked car belonging to an aid worker working with a NGO connected to the U.N. Refugee Agency’s humanitarian mission, destroying the car. A journalist who was riding in the vehicle said that it was “very likely that the operator could see the labels on the car.”

Later, on May 29, a Russian drone attack killed a Ukrainian ambulance driver and seriously injured his wife (who had been riding in the vehicle). Soon after, on June 8, Oleksandr Prokudin, the governor of Kherson oblast, reported that after a spate of shelling in the vicinity of Bilozerka, a Russian drone had attacked an ambulance that arrived on the scene to help, injuring the driver.

The tactic has spread beyond Ukraine and Syria. In Gaza, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports that Israel has increasingly turned to small quadcopters to attack civilians and journalists, while Palestinian sources in Rafah told AFP in June that they lived in fear of “quadcopter drones, which mercilessly target anyone walking.” Israel has long used consumer-type quadcopters and racing drones for military purposes, including to drop tear gas on protesters in Gaza in 2018 and to counter so-called fire balloons sent from Gaza during the same period.

In Myanmar, rebel groups fighting the military junta have become adept at using small, cheap consumer and custom-built drones for both intelligence-gathering and for attacks. In recent months, Myanmar’s junta has begun to catch up: In September and October 2023, villagers in the Sagaing region said they were repeatedly attacked by bomb-dropping regime drones.

In another incident this July, the Insecurity Insight NGO reported that armed Myanmar military drones attacked a health center in the Sagaing region, killing a midwife, her two-year-old child, and at least five patients affiliated with the local resistance forces, as well as injuring at least 15. The patients who were killed reportedly had been injured in an earlier military drone attack, and had been seeking care for their injuries at the time

Mexico’s drug cartels, too, have become frequent users of consumer and DIY drones in recent years, both for smuggling and for terrorism. Like Bashar al-Assad’s forces, the cartels appear to view these sudden, shocking drone attacks as an effective way to terrorize civilians into ceding strategically valuable territory. In May 2023, more than 600 people were reportedly displaced from communities in Mexico’s Guerrero state due to cartel drone attacks, and attacks since then in the state have reportedly killed civilians and targeted local schools.

These tactics are spreading, and there is little guidance for civilians, including journalists and aid workers, on how to deal with them. Most existing writing on the subject is geared toward attacks from larger, more powerful, and stealthier long-range military drones.

Thankfully, there are some things the international community can start doing today.

National and international bodies and organizations concerned with civilian protection, such as the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, should come together to strategize around how best to protect people from small drone attacks. These groups should loudly condemn the terrorist attacks and investigate possible violations of international humanitarian law—as well as sponsoring the research and reporting needed to better understand the problem.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has led to the rapid development of new technologies for detecting drone radio signals in the air, new tools for electronically disabling drones, and a wide variety of other basic drone defense tactics (including the revelation that you can hide from thermal sensors by throwing a yoga mat over your head). Perhaps some of these tools and tactics could be adopted for civilian use.

Finally, we need more collective clarity around the legality of attacks on civilians with small drones under international humanitarian law as well as the legality of civilian efforts to defend themselves. Currently, interpretation of the law doesn’t adequately account for tiny flying robots in combat. As I wrote with my colleague Ossama A. Zaqqout in 2018 (and again in 2022), the presence of identical-looking small drones in the airspace over today’s conflicts makes it very hard for people on the ground to tell whose drone is whose.

Under international humanitarian law’s principle of distinction, combatants must distinguish themselves from civilians—but unlike manned aircraft, drones are too small to carry marks visible from the ground, and they can’t respond to radio checks. We need better solutions to avoid these cases of mistaken identity.

There’s also uncertainty around how humanitarian law might apply to civilian efforts to anticipate—and defend themselves against—drone attacks. Will civilians lose their noncombatant status if they use counterterrorism tools against small drones? Do civilians lose protection if they monitor radio waves for armed drone presence and report that information to combatants—or if they post that information online in a public place?

As is the case with so many other novel consumer technologies, we’ve swiftly figured out how to use drones both to help humanity and to hurt it. But civilians aren’t doomed to be easy targets—as long as we summon the international will to find ways to protect them.

[dontforgetukraine]

Fedir Yepifanov

Fencer Fedir Yepifanov joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces when he turned 18, the legal age to serve in the military in Ukraine. A promising fencer, Yepifanov, a multiple medalist and winner of national competitions, began his service from the first days of the full-scale invasion. In 2022, he suffered a gunshot wound but later returned to service. In December 2023, Yepifanov was killed by a Russian first-person-view (FPV) drone in the village of Verbove in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. He was one month away from turning 20 years old. "Fedir's whole life was ahead of him if not for the Russian invaders who started the war," his fencing friend Yaroslav Zlyi wrote on Facebook.

Source: Ukrainian athletes who will never have a chance to compete at the Olympics

[theankoletimes]

Drones Rain Fire as Ukrainian Unit Annihilates 50 Russian Troops in Kharkiv Counteroffensive (Video)

Ukrainian drone crews from the elite “TERRA” group under Commander Mykola Volokhov, known by his call sign “Abdula”, released footage showing the systematic destruction of over fifty Russian invaders in the Kharkiv direction. The footage showcases Ukraine’s sophisticated use of first-person-view (FPV) kamikaze drones and artillery in what many are calling one of the most successful defensive…