MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. Over four years of the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian military has turned drones from "toys" to a war-winning weapon, completely changing how wars are fought in the process, Dmitry Kuzyakin, an unmanned aircraft expert and general designer at the Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions, told TASS.
"March 10, 2022, marked the first use of FPV drones by the Russian army. On that day, guys who until recently didn’t even know what an FPV was, turned war on its head. The war that everyone had known since the advent of artillery and aircraft was changed forever not by yesterday’s toys, not by drones themselves, but by our guys. The guys who conceived, mastered, and developed this new type of weapon. On March 10, there was a typical firefight in the Gostomel area, where the enemy used the classic method of determining firing sectors, positions, defense lines, and evacuation routes. But our guys didn’t simply mosey in to fight. FPV drones flew into action instead," the expert said.
He clarified that on that day, the FPV crews’ operating range was only 800 meters. "And this was enough to dismantle the stronghold without losses, completely stop the resistance, and destroy first the second and then the first line of defense of the Ukrainian armed forces. Many enemy fighters surrendered that day. It is obvious that old-school fighting with familiar means against FPV drones is absolutely futile. March 10, 2022, demonstrated how dangerous and game-changing this new type of weapon is," Kuzyakin noted.
