00:01Drones have been part of war for many years.
00:04Simple remote-controlled aircraft were tested as early as World War I.
00:08But the conflict in Ukraine has seen their use grow significantly.
00:11They are no longer just for special tasks.
00:14Now, there are key weapons on the battlefield.
00:17One of the most effective weapons in the Ukraine war is the small, low-cost first-person view drone.
00:23FPVs, originally designed for civilian racers, are controlled by pilots on the ground and often crash into targets with explosives.
00:30The total cost of the drone's components can be as little as $500.
00:34Benjamin Wolba is co-founder of the European Defence Tech Hub.
00:38So we have very cheap FPV drones, costing just a couple hundred or thousand bucks,
00:43taking out very expensive, very bespoke systems such as tanks, fighter jets, helicopters.
00:50When you look at studies where combat kills come from, 70 to 80 percent of kills and injuries come from FPV drones.
00:59Ukrainian soldiers say drones force tanks and heavy vehicles to stay farther back from the front.
01:04There are so many now that it's hard to move safely in trenches or bring supplies.
01:09If you're a large group of people, you're a very easy target. Drones can hit you very easily.
01:14What do Ukrainians and Russians do at the moment? They advance in very small groups. Two, three people.
01:20Why? Because if you disperse many groups, the drone has a hard time chasing those individual groups.
01:26The best countermeasure is electronic warfare.
01:29When a drone's signal is jammed, the pilot loses the ability to control the craft or can no longer see the video signal feed.
01:36But both Ukraine and Russia have ways to counter the jamming.
01:39So you're attaching a fiber optic cable on an FPV drone and now you can transmit data through that fiber optic cable back to the operator.
01:48And the cable, it's on a spool and it literally can extend 5, 10, 20 or even 50 kilometers.
01:56And the main benefit really being you do not need to rely on a radio link, which can be spoofed or jammed.
02:02Your communication cannot be disturbed, right?
02:07You, as long as the fiber stays on and does not break or get teared, you see, you know, what the drone sees and your enemy cannot hack your communication.
02:21In response to the challenges posed by electronic warfare systems, Ukraine and Russia are now racing to develop AI-guided drones.
02:28They find and hit targets on their own without needing a constant signal from the pilot.
02:33Ukrainian industry figures say the tech needs more work before widespread use.
02:37In general, solutions change as threats change.
02:41So we need actually better radar technology to detect drones and to have better aerial intelligence.
02:47The same goes for interceptor drones.
02:58In the first place they click on a combat system.
03:00They are not monitoring the radio traffic system.
03:04They have a lot of reliable skills that do not have to develop and any kind of reliable information.
03:08They are in the next place.
03:11They are in the next place.
03:12They do not monitor the radio traffic system.
03:14They are in the next place for individuals to reach for thepersons,
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