FPV drones with autonomous guidance system emerge in Ukraine

20 March, 2024 The moment of aiming the drone at the target. Freeze frame from a video by Serhii Sternenko FPV drones with an autonomous guidance system have been introduced to the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

Volunteer Serhii Sternenko published the video capturing this equipment from the soldiers of the 60th and 63rd Mechanized Brigades. The video shows how the drone's guidance system locks onto a target, after which communication is cut off by enemy electronic warfare. However, after that, the drone continued to attack the target in automatic mode and successfully hit it.

The volunteer noted that the technology is new and needs to be improved and scaled. Therefore, he announced a fundraising campaign to purchase such drones with the goal of UAH 50 million.

The funds will go to the purchase of over 1300 such day- and night-time drones in classic and fixed-wing configurations. This financial investment will not only help equip the Defense Forces with a large number of autonomous kamikaze drones but also help develop this promising technology. Sternenko added that once the technology is fully ready, the state will be involved in its purchase to further scale production.

Enemy tank hit by FPV drone with autonomous guidance.

Freeze frame from Serhii Sternenko's video

Sternenko also said that the Russians have been testing this technology for more than a month and that its development and scaling in Ukraine are urgently needed.

Innovation in FPV drones

Militarnyi recently reported that the Russians were using an FPV drone with a fiber optic cable. It was transferred to specialists of the "Birds of Magyar" Battalion for further study.

Russian FPV drone with cable communications system. March 2024.

Photo credits: Serhey Flesh

"We saw something we had never seen before. A Russian FPV drone was flying toward a target with a 10-kilometer-long coil of thin fiber optic cable. The wire was unwound in the air.

Thus, we see a new technology of FPV drone control," Serhiy Flesh said.

The use of wired communications in drone control offers an important advantage, as such a drone becomes invulnerable to its own and enemy electronic warfare.

At the same time, its range of use, payload weight, and maneuverability are limited.