Drones have become indispensable on the war front in Ukraine. No military unit can do without these discreet, light and inexpensive tools, which allow soldiers to carry out reconnaissance missions without putting themselves in danger and can transmit vital information on the exact location of enemy positions. Report in the Kramatorsk region where Ukrainian companies train army soldiers free of charge in the use of these devices, symbols of modern warfare.
With our special correspondent in the Donbass, Vincent Souriau
The lessons take place in the open air, on a vacant lot strewn with the carcasses of tanks, watchtowers and gas cisterns. The decor is perfect: it looks like a battlefield. The two trainers, Micha and Vladlen, search their trunk and pull out four mattresses. The mission of their students is to find these fictitious targets in the middle of the relief: ” We disperse these mattresses all over the base and they will come and fly over this area to find the targets. First, they must be able to locate them and, most importantly, when they have seen them, they must be able to replace these targets on a map to find their coordinates. »
Soldiers train on a mainstream Chinese model. The Mavic-3, retail price: $3,500. It is the most common reconnaissance drone on the Donbass front. A small four-engine propeller, 40 cm wingspan, remotely controlled thanks to its control screen. First experience for this officer who has never piloted: ” It freaks me out, I’m afraid of breaking it and I’m afraid of losing it! »
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In fact, he is doing very well. With its controller very similar to a game console, the bird can be tamed in a few hours. But the sinews of war is not piloting, it’s navigation: taking a map and knowing how to say “I’ve just flown over a target north of this bridge, next to this road”, it doesn’t don’t improvise: Quite a few of my contacts who were mountaineers or hikers before the war knew topographic maps, knew how to orient themselves in relation to the relief and they were able to put this know-how to work when they joined the army. But training a good drone pilot from scratch takes months on the battlefield. »
Changes of seasons, destruction or creation of new buildings, anything that modifies the landscape will disturb the recognition of places and mislead the pilot. But above all, there are radio wave jammers. Used by both Ukraine and Russia to interfere with enemy communications: ” Here, we are on a sensitive base, there is a jammer of radio waves. If we exceed 150 meters in altitude, we enter the field of the jammer. We lose the GPS signal, which means the students are going to have to orient themselves with just their eyes, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen to them on the battlefield. That’s why it’s so important that they learn visual navigation. »
On average, the soldiers undergo four days of training, it is the vital minimum before being launched on the front.