How Ukrainian soldiers are using drones to fight Russians on the ground

Savvy Ukrainian soldiers are continuously using creative methods of fighting against the Russian invasion. At the onset of the invasion, Ukraine was outnumbered both in fighting soldiers and weapons. To level the combat field, the proud Ukrainians proceeded with a no-holds-barred approach to combat the Russians in every way possible. The way the Ukrainians use drones is one of them.

Children and professionals alike find drone ownership a new and thrilling pastime. Now the drone enthusiasts in Ukraine have moved from their backyards conducting surveillance missions to the countryside effectively fighting Russian combat vehicles and soldiers and exacting a shocking toll that is to be reckoned with!

Creativity is needed for the following two purposes:

1. Enabling the drone to fly with and hold various pieces of ordnance — the heavier the better. Of course, heavier ordnance has a greater impact in terms of killing power, but it also drops in a straighter line and is less affected by the winds and other climate aspects.

A field ground control station for an ordnance-carrying hunter drone. (Center for Security and International Studies)

2. Fabricate a simple yet reliable mechanism that allows the release of the ordnance “on command.” Somehow the ground control station has to have the means to transmit an electric signal to the drone and command it to activate the ordnance release mechanism.

The initial improvised drone attacks used grenades from a Russian 30mm automatic grenade launcher. Once an adequate drop trigger was configured, the Ukrainians began simple attack maneuvers to knock out light armor and cause as many Russian casualties as they could.

Afterward, the means of delivery became faster and carried heavier and heavier payloads that consisted of one piece of large ordnance and several pieces of smaller ordnance. This made the drones capable of attacking several targets per sortie.

Shuttlecock fins attached to a 3-D printer coupler which is then attached to the ordnance. (Wikimedia Commons)

Some of the earliest improvised systems consisted of a 30mm that is attached to stabilizing fins and a coupler using a 3-D printer system. In some instances, printed fins were replaced by a shuttlecock which is the flyer used in the long-time popular game of bat mitten.

The more I think about it, perhaps one of the best groups of people to assign the task of developing effective ordnance release triggers is the high school robotics teams. Throw that talent into a technical robotics task and they will solve it in no time flat, present an amazing product, and have a blast of a time doing it!

This drone phenomenon puts me in mind of my brother and times of early brotherhood when our beliefs were that we were put on this Earth by a God who commanded us to destroy each other. Thus we were born into a world, a world of kites in those days. We flew kites often and glared at each other from across a grassy meadow. We plotted and planned with all the rage of the next Apocalypse.

It became the life goal for both of us to develop flying kites with the ability to “drop things” on each other. It was the consensus obtained through the assistance of a double-agent spy that the ideal payload for the flight and drop-by kite should be a water balloon. How grand it would be to pelt the living daylight out my brother by a well-placed water balloon launched from upwards of 200-300 feet of gentle winds and light chop on bay waters?

Consistent failures on both sides revealed the new dream payload should be freshly-squeezed dog poo, and the double-agent spy made sure we both knew that nothing would do but poo. However, we both struggled to make the drop happen.

I never did succeed in sending an airborne load below to my brother. He had the first and only poo release that unfortunately peppered his own territorial lunch point. What’s more, he stepped squarely into his “ammo dump” trying to maneuver out of the trajectory of plummeting poo. He should have known to not keep his ammo supply so close to the firing point.

Feature Image: Ground crew prepares to launch a newer technology octocopter (eight power packs of thrust). Improvised ordnance attached here is two improvised equivalents of a 60mm mortar shell. (Wikimedia Commons)