FPV drone is a weapon for nerds! Tetyana Chornovol, a journalist and former member of the Verkhovna Rada who is now serving in the Armed Forces, shared her experience as a new drone pilot
She notes that pilot skills are only 20% of success, the rest is the merit of the engineer and sapper, who must be part of the team
Tetyana Chornovol, a journalist and former member of the Verkhovna Rada of the VIII convocation (2014-2019), who is currently serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, shared her experience of mastering FPV drones as a pilot on her Facebook page. She acknowledged that she had no gaming experience at the beginning of her training, noting that the norm of 30 drones per month is a tenth of what is needed, and that flying to a target does not mean hitting it.
"Our engineer has now reached the point where each drone flies at a different control frequency and on a different video communication channel. We measure which frequency is least jammed by our own and enemy electronic warfare at the time of departure and which video communication channel gives the drone's antenna peak power," Chornovol writes. She admits that the training does not focus on technical skills, although almost all drones' antennas, even from the same batch, come in different versions, so they need to be refined. That's why only 1 drone out of 10 in her team reaches the target.
If the team does not have a talented engineer, FPVs cease to be an effective weapon at all
In addition to technical problems, there is also the issue of ammunition and detonator operation, which requires the skills of a sapper. Therefore, a pilot is 20% of the success, an engineer is 50%, and a sapper is 30%," Chornovol notes.
The lack of "interesting" targets at a depth of 15 km from the front line adds to the problems. Therefore, the targets for FVP drones are less important than, for example, a year ago - cars, dugouts and checkpoints.
Chornovol also compares her experience as a Stugna operator (a few days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she took an ATGM operator's course and participated in battles near Chernihiv and in the defeat of the 6th Russian Tank Regiment in the Brovary district of Kyiv region) to piloting an FPV drone: "To be honest, it was hard for me to learn because I am not a gamer and never have been. To be honest, when I first opened the simulator programme on my computer, I thought it was impossible to pilot an FPV," she says.
Since kamikaze drones are supposed to be inexpensive weapons, there should be a lot of them. Currently, her team receives only 30 FPV drones a month. At the same time, the most successful teams receive ten times as many, and then it looks like an effective use of FPV drones.
For example, I have 30 drones per month. This is nothing. This is not work. Effective crews have 300 drones per month.
In general, Chornovol concludes that FPV drones are not a panacea in war. They do not completely replace artillery or more expensive unmanned systems. And right now, FPV drones are only effective when used in conjunction with other drones - heavy bombers, reconnaissance wings, and kamikaze wings. And the Ukrainian Armed Forces need not only pilots, but also engineers.
