How to counter Ukrainian FPV drones? When Russian soldiers receive a survival guide – L’Express

A skull, with quadcopter propellers on the sides, all in a viewfinder: this is the cover illustration of a document distributed to Russian soldiers at the front. Its title: “Tactics of enemy use of FPV drones and solutions to counter them”. Written recently, it details the threats posed by these killer aircraft, which have become markers of the terrible ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the bloodiest on the European continent since the Second World War.

This survival manual confirms the permanent threat posed by these small armed drones to combatants, causing “up to 70% of human and material losses” on the front. Booklets of this type should soon be distributed in Western armies. Because these inexpensive weapons are everywhere where there is a conflict from now on, as shown by their use in the offensive that brought down the el-Assad regime in Syria or even in Burma, where they inflict significant damage on the junta.

The manual details, with color infographics, around twenty offensive tactics of these drones equipped with an explosive charge, controlled using a controller and an FPV headset (for “first person view”) which gives the feeling of being “on board” the drone. This immersive vision increases reaction capacity, while making it easier to aim at a target for these small “kamikaze” aircraft capable of flying up to 100 km/h for a maximum range of around ten kilometers.

All scenarios are presented there. The FPV drone is most often accompanied by a reconnaissance drone. He can “hunt” in a pack or alone, to accompany the assault of fighters on the ground, target a building or soldiers. The manual mentions FPV drones transported several tens of kilometers from the front, by a “mother drone” capable of then serving as a transmission relay for the pilots. It also presents cases of drones with a thermobaric charge. This generates two explosions: the first to spread a gas and the second to ignite it and suck out the oxygen, which is devastating in shelters.

“As soon as we stood outside, we were threatened”

“This manual shows to what extent confronting drones is now one of the most common experiences of the combatant and a permanent problem, explains Yohann Michel, military expert and research fellow at the Institute of Strategy and Defense Studies, based in Lyon It is also an additional tool for the fighter, which leads to a whole set of new tactics, tricks and traps. These job manuals will fill the shelves of military libraries, as before. , in his time, those having followed the arrival of the machine guns.”

The manual emphasizes, in a second part, the recommendations to follow, taking into account the fact that these drones have “led to decentralization and a reduction of troops at the front”. He calls on the Russian fighter to camouflage himself by all means, to “stay in the shadows”, to “move little” and to move when visibility is reduced, at sunrise and sunset, or when there is has fog. “We are spotted by movements during the day and heat radiation at night”, with thermal cameras, points out the document. “The light of a cigarette, of a campfire, […] “Mobile screens attract drones like butterflies to a flame,” he explains.

In view of this threat, the booklet calls on fighters to build more extensive fortifications, by placing nets on their shelters and at openings, to prevent an FPV drone from sneaking up to them. He advises remaining wary, even several kilometers from the front. “The risk of the first line is now experienced several kilometers deep,” notes Yohann Michel. As the manual notes, it is becoming much more difficult to ensure the supply of the front, entrusted more and more to terrestrial drones.

To reach this area of ​​the front where FPV drones abound, the Russians have started to install signal lights. “If the light is red, it means there are drones flying in the area, if it is orange, there is a risk and if it is green, it is the right time to pass,” explains a French military source.

“These FPV drones are a sword of Damocles permanently above you, notes historian and reserve colonel Michel Goya. It is very difficult for soldiers to face so many different, simultaneous threats coming from several directions. It adds a layer of stress to them to be hit by an invisible enemy.” This development reminds him of the confrontation, then new, with snipers, during his deployment in Sarajevo, at the beginning of the 1990s. “As soon as we had our noses outside, we were threatened, we had to take this into account, which required additional efforts, inevitably tiring. I made recommendations based on experience, at the time, for subsequent deployments.”

“Always listen to the sounds”

The manual distributed to Russians urges them to “always listen to sounds”, to scan the sky, and to consider “all drones as hostile”. If the soldier notices that he is being spotted by a drone, he must “take shelter” and, above all, “not reveal the position of [son] unit.” “If a drone is twenty or thirty meters away, don’t freeze […] your salvation is in the reaction and the movement”, he adds. He recommends shooting at short distance – “up to 50 meters” – with hunting or pump rifles, whose grapeshot has a greater chance of hit an FPV drone than a pistol or assault rifle shot He argues that electronic jamming remains the best defense.

It also invites us to be wary of a drone that seems inert. “When an FPV drone is detected on the ground (especially if it beeps near positions), do not happily run towards it, hoping for a new trophy. It may be a trap, he specifies. Do not approach the side of the camera (the cameraman is waiting for you to appear in the frame), do not touch it, report to the commander. The specialist will take care of it. In its conclusion this booklet specifies that “the innovative development of this type of weapon will undoubtedly lead to the research and implementation of new counter-attack techniques and methods (electronic, optical, mechanical, etc.), and will lead also to the creation of specialized units.

For Western armies, and that of France in particular, this is an important challenge, as noted by Michel Goya. “The Ukrainians who train in the West are pleased with the quality of the training offered to them, he notes. But they explain to us that it does not take into account this new data, which, in indeed, remains theoretical for us”. And for good reason: French troops have not yet been confronted on the massive scale of the Ukrainian front.