New technology is allowing Ukraine's drone operators to pilot drones hundreds or thousands of miles from the front lines, but for now at least, operations still need soldiers to set up the drones closer to the danger.
Maks Muravsky/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
New technologies are allowing Ukrainian drone operators — who are high-priority targets — to control drones from relatively safer locations hundreds or even thousands of miles away. But human soldiers often still have to go to risky locations to transport, prepare, and launch these aircraft.Ukrainian interceptor drone and other uncrewed aerial system operators are increasingly using satellite connections that allow them to operate far from the launch site — potentially even from another country. The makers describe these capabilities as a key way to protect the pilots in Russia's crosshairs.The aircraft, however, often still need to be brought to a launch site and prepared, meaning soldiers are still needed closer to the danger, at least for now.Ukrainian drone maker Wild Hornets, for instance, has developed technology that allows pilots to fly the company's interceptor drones from hundreds of kilometers away. The company told Business Insider that ground forces still transport and prepare the aircraft, though.With satellite communications technology for combat drone operations, "we are able to put our pilots in any place when there is a stable internet connection for them," Dmytro "Liber" Zhluktenko, a former drone operator who now serves as a lessons-learned analyst with Ukraine's 413th Unmanned Systems Regiment "RAID," told Business Insider."But this doesn't remove the need for the ground groups, people who actually attach the explosive, put the drone outside of the bunker, et cetera," he said.
