Russia Has Snatched Away Ukraine's Drone Advantage

Russia is outnumbering Ukraine's first-person-view drones fleet along the hot spots of front-line fighting, a Ukrainian official said, as the Russians work hard to catch up on Kyiv's lead in the drone war.

Ukraine has just one drone, compared with between five and seven Russian first-person-view, or FPV, drones, in key battleground sectors of eastern and southern Ukraine, said Yuriy Fedorenko, the commander of Ukraine's Achilles drone company, which is within the country's 92nd Assault Brigade.

Russian FPV drones fly into Ukraine's airspace and search for any targets they can find there, he told Ukrainian media on Tuesday. "We are not working that way at the moment. We work exclusively when we have a target."

Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian military for comment via email.

Since it was invaded by Russia in February 2022, Ukraine has spent the many long months of full-scale war amassing its "drone army," constantly developing new airborne vehicles and fundraising for more. The drones cover nearly every aspect of the fighting, from helping out with reconnaissance to suicide drone strikes and guiding artillery fire.

One of the best-known unmanned aerial vehicles is the first-person-view drone, or FPV UAV. FPV drones are frequently used to record battlefield footage, often appearing to show Ukrainian kamikaze drone strikes on Russian military equipment that is then shared by Kyiv's military. The explosive drones are cheap, often using commercially bought parts, and can pack a punch against an enemy's vehicles or its personnel.

Western experts have long lauded Ukraine's creativity with various types of drones, but analysts and Ukrainian officials have increasingly said that Russia is catching up on Ukraine's lead.

Ukraine dominated FPV manufacturing earlier this year, but Russia has since ramped up its own programs and sent large numbers of the unmanned vehicles to the front lines, according to Samuel Bendett of the Center for Naval Analyses, a U.S. think tank.

"Multiple Russian volunteer, state and affiliated manufacturing efforts have significantly ramped up FPV development and shipped large quantities to the front," he told Newsweek. "It's highly likely that these efforts combined are providing the Russian military with tens of thousands of FPVs a month."

Russia's FPV development has probably "grown exponentially," Bendett said, although it is difficult to determine how many FPV drones are present on, and above, the battlefield. Ukraine's military is increasingly reporting more Russian drones operating in larger numbers across certain parts of the front lines, he added.

A Russian volunteer group recently said that it is producing about a thousand FPV drones each month, according to Forbes.

Update 12/14/23, 10:55 a.m. ET: This story was updated to clarify a quote from Samuel Bendett of the Center for Naval Analyses.

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