How Ukrainian Recruits Train To Survive The Drone War
Recent battlefield statistics highlight the extraordinary impact unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are having on the war in Ukraine. According to Kyiv’s military leadership, in January this year two-thirds of Russian military hardware losses were caused by attack drones. On the Ukrainian side, losses to Russian drone strikes are estimated to be running at a similar ratio.
Ukraine’s basic military training for new soldiers was recently expanded to include drills on how to counter drones. Frontliner gained access to one such course in Ukraine’s central Zhytomyr region, where recruits are taught how to hide from, shoot down or — as a last resort — evade enemy UAVs.
Within the Zhytomyr region training grounds, one area is reserved exclusively for recruits to train in counter-drone tactics. Here, fighters hone their shooting accuracy and reflexes, and learn to understand the flight characteristics of real quadcopters, including erratic FPV suicide drones.
Some of the equipment in the Zhytomyr training ground looks primitive, but recruits vouch for its effectiveness. One device features imitation drones made from wooden slats that dangle from a crossbar. One soldier swings the dummy drone, another practices keeping his rifle locked on the dangling target.
“Tankist,” a recently mobilized 33-year-old soldier explains the rudimentary simulator. “You need to be able to shoot at a drone from any position: standing, sitting, lying down. On this simulator we practice our reflexes, then we hone everything on real drones.”
Until recently, soldiers could evade UAVs by moving under cover of darkness but now Ukrainian fighters say thermal imaging drone cameras that can spot soldiers even at night are in widespread use. Additionally, electronic warfare devices able to scramble communication between a drone and its pilot are becoming increasingly redundant due to UAVs that communicate with their operators through kilometers-long fibre-optic cables.
Camouflage suits are one way to evade drones, but even such time-tested methods are far from reliable. “Fizruk,” a former physical education teacher turned military trainer and drone expert, explains to recruits that when on the move across open ground, soldiers should maintain a distance of 50-100 meters from their comrades. In the grim calculations of war, a single soldier spotted by a reconnaissance drone may not justify launching an FPV drone on a kill mission, whereas a cluster of troops are almost certain to be targeted.
Referencing a consumer quadcopter model made by Chinese drone giant DJI, Fizruk says, “we’re training to shoot at a Mavic and we’re learning to communicate its position because the actions of a whole group can depend on it.”
“The fighters need to know which drone is friendly and which is not, and be able to calculate flight trajectories,” the instructor tells Frontliner.
DJI Mavic drones come with an array of cameras useful for reconnaissance, and can be equipped to drop grenades, and bomblets that explode on impact.
Fizruk displays different types of munitions that Russian fighters attach to drones and explains the difference between reconnaissance UAVs that provide real-time battlefield intelligence, and strike UAVs designed for one-way kill missions.
“Khokhol”, a 21-year-old fighter who volunteered to fight the Russian invasion says, “here they teach us those little things that we don’t pay attention to. When we do the same thing over and over, we eventually get it mastered. In a combat situation there won’t be time to think, only muscle memory will work.”
In an open area of the training ground dotted with tire stacks and trenches, fighters face a real Mavic and practice aiming, moving under pressure, and scrambling for cover.
The fighters also shoot live rounds at targets that simulate the size and movement of a drone.
Forty-one-year-old “Wolf” from Lviv, who until recently was making his living renovating apartments, is now preparing to face the Russian military. Answering a question about the course on countering drones, he says, “this is probably the most useful aspect of the basic training right now. That, and medicine.”
Story adapted into English by Amos Chapple
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