Exclusive: Ukraine lost 75% of its drones during the first six months of the war

Modern warfare is fundamentally different from the battles of the 20th century. And if light weapons, artillery and armored vehicles have not received crucial development, the means of technical reconnaissance, detection and elimination of the enemy have moved to a new level.

The surveillance, unit management, the guidance of artillery and its correction, propaganda, intimidation and destruction of the enemy - all this is just an incomplete list of the capabilities of the ubiquitous UAVs. The advantage in modern protracted warfare is no longer dictated by the presence of an infantry battalion, but a large fleet of drones. A vivid example of this is the Russo-Ukrainian War.

In the course of hostilities in Ukraine, it is very difficult to carry out large-scale operations secretly, as everything is monitored by unmanned aerial vehicles, which has become indispensable tool of modern conflicts. At the beginning of the conflict, Russia expectedly surpassed Ukraine in the number of drones.

According to experts, Russia had about 2,000 UAVs of various modifications and with different purposes, while the Armed Forces of Ukraine had a fleet of 1,000 drones (mainly UAS A1-CM Furia and Leleka-100). A number of experts suggest that because of this imbalance the Western countries began to supply their reconnaissance UAVs shortly after the start of Russia’s invasion.

It was urgent to ensure at least parity on this issue. Therefore, in April 2022, the American RQ-20 Puma, the Danish RQ-35 Heidrun and a number of other models arrived in Ukraine in an accelerated mode.

However, if the West really helped Ukraine with the supply of UAVs, everything turned out to be much more difficult with the means of electronic warfare (EW) to counter Russian drones. Several news outlets have already noted that Russian EW systems seriously limit the capabilities of Ukrainian reconnaissance aircraft (as well as NATO ones).

At the same time, expert opinions regarding the so-called "average life expectancy" of UAV are mostly the same. Civil quadcopter flies three times, and a fixed-wing UAV has six “lives”. Eventually, such an aircraft will inevitably be suppressed by electronic warfare forces or destroyed. Taken together, it can be stated that only about a third of UAV missions have been successful.

The Ukrainian officer from 40th Artillery Brigade Dmitro (not his real name), kindly agreed to clarify some details and talk about his experience of UAV combat use. According to Dmitro, he witnessed a "massive electronic suppression."

Dmitro said that by the summer of 2022, his unit was equipped with Furies, Leleks, Pumas and Heidruns. Each type of UAV has its own pros and cons.

The UAV operators of the 40th brigade considered the Ukrainian Furia is the worst one, since after exposed to Russian EW, all systems were turned off: telemetry, control and video channels. The only thing that saves in such situations is the "return home" function. In addition, the Furia has a poor-quality camera mounting system, which is why the transmitted image shakes too much during flight. Also, the UAV has a hull made of low-quality materials, which is damaged very often after landing and negatively affects aerodynamics. The only advantage of the drone is the long duration of the flight - 3 hours.

The reputation of Leleka, which was also developed in Ukraine, is slightly better. This UAV camera mount is also ill-conceived, making the image shaky as well. In addition, the Leleka requires a more skilled operator, as the control is more difficult in comparison with other types of UAVs due to its aerodynamic characteristics. On the other hand, Leleka is better adapted to work in jamming conditions.

The American Puma drones made a mixed impression on our source. Firstly, the UAVs of the first delivery did not have the “return home” function, which, in the event of exposure to Russian electronic warfare, led to the fall of the drone. In fact, the United States simply donated the Russians at least half of the batch delivered to the 40th brigade.

In addition, the American UAV did not have special catapult to launch, which led to fall on takeoff. Dmytro also refers to the drone’s disadvantages as poor maneuverability and low “day” camera resolution. On the other hand, Puma has infrared camera in its base, which, along with a regular camera, have a stabilizer, making the transmitted image pretty smooth.

To the surprise of the UAF officer, by the middle of summer 2022, the manufacturer had updated the firmware of the American drones. Now Puma has a vital “return home” function. Dmitro attributes this to the fact that he and his friends have repeatedly complained to his superiors about the problems his unit is facing in controlling drones, including American Pumas. At the same time, while the Americans quickly got their bearings and eliminated the shortcomings in the next batch, update of the Ukrainian drones is still not going as well as it should be.

Dmitro almost did not come across with the latest type of UAV, the Danish Heidruns. However, another officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who fought in the Izyum battle, sent him a fairly detailed description of this plane. The main disadvantage of the Danish Haidrun is that there is only one drone in one package, while other systems have three vehicles. In addition, a Danish UAV can only be in the air for a little over an hour, which is not enough in modern realities. On the other hand, Ukrainian officers note the simplicity and speed of preparing the drone for launch, as well as the presence of a built-in UAV control frequency switching system, which helps the drones withstand Russian electronic warfare.

In general, Dmitro noted that by the summer of 2022, his unit had lost more than 75% of drones – mostly because of enemy electronic warfare systems. Surprisingly, the strongest example was the Heidrun, and the most unsuccessful were the Furia and the American Puma (before the software update). That is why the Armed Forces of Ukraine should soon receive about 120 Heidrun UAVs from Germany and crowdfunding programs.

However, battle-hardened Ukrainian officer is skeptical about these deliveries. According to him, the impact of Russian electronic warfare begins 20 km from the line of contact, and the Ukrainian army does not yet have an effective way to counter it. So Ukrainian UAVs will continue to fall, making 2-3 flights. The issue with the pilots is also quite acute. Newly minted drone operators receive a minimal set of skills, but no one teaches them to fly without telemetry and GPS. Moreover, statistics show that the life of UAV operators is even more at risk, cause the enemy is constantly hunting for them.

Thus, the Ukrainian system of unmanned fleet first needs a complete revision of tactics and work on mistakes, and only then the delivery of Western UAVs - after all, without understanding the problems, the new Heidruns, Pumas and Lelekas, no matter how many they are delivered, will burn out just like old ones.