A storied Ukrainian military drone unit said it has developed a way to counter an increasingly deadly weapon — Russian first-person view (FPV) drones that use fiber optic cables instead of radio waves to connect with their controllers, making them impervious to jamming and other forms of electronic warfare.
The Magyar Birds Brigade claims it has devised a system using mobile radars to provide early warning for incoming FPV drones several kilometers away. Once they detect the threat, the unit then launches its own drones to intercept the Russian ones before they can reach their targets.
“…the first options for [the] detection and destruction [of Russian FPV fiber optic guided drones] exist and are already being used” by the brigade, claimed its commander, Robert Brovdi, who uses the callsign “Magyar.”
Brovdi posted a video on his Telegram channel purporting to show one of his drones destroying a Russian fiber-optic-guided FPV drone. Notable is the large spool on the back of the Russian drone. It contains an extremely thin but strong wire linking the drone with its controller. This capability has turned an already fearsome weapon into something much harder to defeat. Because their communications are not degraded when flying very low to the ground or even in structures, they can also hunt just feet off the ground and into enclosed areas as long as their data cable stays intact.
While Brovdi touts the system, he does not specify what kind of mobile radar his unit is using. It is likely a microwave radar system, like those that operate in Ku-band for counter drone applications. The radar’s short wavelength is optimized to sport small, relatively slow-moving drones. The drawback is that they have very limited range measured in just a handful of miles. So these sensors are great for detecting and tracking drones, but they don’t provide much early warning and craft can move in and out of their detection range quickly. Still, if one of these radars can be pushed forward to the front, it could provide critical detection of incoming FPV drones over a defined area and a fix on where a rapidly reacting counter-FPV drone can find it.
The Magyar Birds’ system is the latest development in what has become a leap-frogging duel between Ukrainian and Russian FPV drones and countermeasures. As the FPV drones became more prominent on the battlefield, they now rival the importance of traditional artillery.
Both sides have also been using drones to take out other drones. This capability first emerged in the skies over Ukraine in October 2022 when a Ukrainian Mavic drone swatted down a Russian one. One of the first such battles was captured in this video you can see below.
Last summer, videos emerged of Ukraine using its FPV drones to take out larger, more expensive Russian surveillance and strike drones. Today, Ukraine has multiple types of drones dedicated to hunting other drones, and Russia is developing and deploying similar systems. You can see one of those encounters in the following video.
⚡
Interception of the
����
Russian UAV kamikaze “Lancet” using an FPV drone with air detonation. The work of the “Signum” unit of the
FPV drones hunting fiber-optic FPV drones in part takes advantage of the latter’s greatest advantage and turns it into a vulnerability. While the cables prevent them from being jammed, the extra weight of the large spools needed to operate over long distances slows them down and makes them less maneuverable. That’s something the Magyar Birds noted in the video the unit posted.
The size and weight of the spools used on fiber-optic-guided FPV drones make them slower and less maneuverable. (Magyar Birds Screenshot)
In his Telegram post, Brovdi urged Ukraine to rush mobile radars capable of detecting small drones to the front lines.
“The army must promptly and massively re-equip with mobile versions of radars every 2-4 km of the front line and with calculations of conventional FPV fighters to destroy enemy FPVs intercepted by mobile radars on fiber optics,” he suggested.
These same radars are in extreme demand around the globe as the threat from drones even in peaceful areas explodes. They can even be found on super yachts. These same systems provide awareness of drone activities around military bases and other critical installations, and many of these types of locales still lack them.
It’s also worth noting that these sensors, especially commercial grade ones, are vulnerable to detection and attack themselves as their emissions can be detected, triangulated and rapidly targeted. While deploying such sensors on land vehicles, from crewed to uncrewed ones, could help in terms of survivability, these systems will still be highly vulnerable.
Given that Ukraine is fighting across a 600-mile front in its own country plus the territory it is battling for in Russia’s Kursk region, it seems at best this could be used as a point-defense system to defend key areas or to help pave the way for limited advances, at least for now. Still, their need points to a near future where advanced counter-drone sensors will be absolutely critical wherever troops are present, and especially on an active battlefield.
