Excerpts from a Twitter thread on the life of a "mobile" drone operator
https://twitter.com/NOELreports/stat...97077518151973
Quote:
A DAY AT THE FRONT - The 28th mechanized
We spent a day with the 28th mechanized brigade, operating in eastern Ukraine. In this thread we give an honest insight of what we saw and what the current situation is at the front.
A story with
@guillaume_ptak
and
@PDocumentarians
...
We woke up at 3:30am and met the press-officer of the 28th Mechanized Brigade in Kramatorsk. We had to move under the cover of darkness so as to avoid being targeted by the Russian FPV drones now plaguing Ukrainian defenders on the frontline....
...
According to the officer, FPV drones are responsible for the vast majority of casualties now sustained by Ukrainian soldiers in eastern Ukraine. After meeting the drone operators, we jumped in the back of their flat-bed truck and set out towards the cold and snowy frontline....
...
After finally getting the drone to work, they flew it out towards the frontline but quickly lost its signal. The onset of winter has proven an obstacle for drones operators, as batteries discharge faster in the cold and the humidity interferes with the signal....
....
Andrii apologized to us, and explained that their work for the day was over. However, they would have to stay at the position until evening, making their way back under the cover of darkness. Artillery shells kept landing in the distance, on Russian positions....
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Seems drones on both sides have forced everyone to a semi-nocturnal lifestyle -- i.e. personnel & equipment resupply has to operate under conditions of darkness or very bad weather, lest ubiquitous FPS drones strike.
...
Returning to Lasers:
https://twitter.com/AirPowerNEW1/sta...87727758627172
Quote:
While power levels are not the only consideration, early DOD evaluations with first and second gen. solid state HEL's has led to the following:
🔸5-15kW: Group 1 & 2 [UAV] defeat
🔸20kW: G 1, 2 & 3 [UAV] defeat
🔸50-60kW: G 1,2 & 3 [UAVs] + RAM [Rockets & Mortars] & some CM [Cruise Missiles]
🔸100-300kW: Long-Range Rockets & Cruise Missiles
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Back to drones...
We finally know what "Baba Yaga" is -- the mysterious Ukrainian Drone that Russians have been calling that.
https://twitter.com/PStyle0ne1/statu...98616020283439
Essentially, the AFU have been using a large, heavy drone as a "mothership" -- most Drones only have a range of 5 to 8 km, limited by both batteries and line of sight propagation of radio for control signals.
The Baba Yaga drone acts as a mothership, carrying smaller drones deep into the battlefield, before releasing them and then acting as a mobile radio relay at an altitude of 1000m for the released drones. This lets AFU strike 20 to 30 km into the rear with drones that normally could only strike 5 to 8 km.