July 30, 2024: Ukraine has developed a drone that can intercept and destroy other drones. This is achieved using FPV (First Person Viewing) operated drones to detect the enemy drone and destroy it by colliding with it. This is made possible by using drones controlled by FPV operators. While the first FPV drones were quadcopters, the interceptor drones are faster fixed wing models that look like remotely controlled model aircraft. The soldier operating the FPV is a kilometer or more away and uses FPV goggles to see what the day/night video camera on the UAV can see. Adding night vision doubles the cost for each UAV, so not all of them have that capability. Each of these UAVs carries half a kilogram of explosives, so it can instantly turn the UAV into a flying bomb that can fly into a target and detonate. This is an awesome and debilitating weapon when used in large numbers over the combat zone.

The interceptor drones are used to take down Russian reconnaissance and surveillance drones that locate targets for Russian artillery and for air strikes by manned aircraft or explosives equipped FPV drones that can go after a moving target. Unlike manned aircraft, drones are smaller and slower with top speeds of 100 to 150 kilometers an hour, and only operate at low altitudes under 1,600 meters. Note that these drones are still unable to catch helicopters, which they could damage. Fixed wing aircraft, like jet fighters, are another matter as they rarely fly low enough for the drones to reach, much less hit such a fast moving aircraft. The Ukrainians have been able to incorporate the new killer drone capability into their air defense systems, which means the air defense radars and fire control systems recognize drones large enough and metallic drones to show up on radar. Modern aircraft tracking radars are not designed to detect, much less track, small slow and low flying drones.

The Russian solution to this Ukrainian interference is to send more surveillance drones accompanied by attack drones as a way to overwhelm the Ukrainian air defense system. Sometimes this works, for a while, but the Ukrainians are generally faster to improvise and modify systems that don’t work until they do. Russian forces rely more on massive use of whatever they have. This sometimes works because, as the Russians like to point out, quantity has a quality all its own. That worked until it didn’t as the Ukrainians found ways to quickly overwhelm Russian defensive measures and destroy more of their artillery target spotting and reconnaissance drones in several areas. If the Ukrainians can continue to manufacture lots of these interceptor drones that simply collide with their targets, the Russians are in big trouble because Ukrainian artillery can operate more freely and effectively and suffer lower losses.

So far the Ukrainians have not demonstrated they can mass produce enough of these attack drones to become a major problem for the Russians. Ukraine does have access to large manufacturing facilities in NATO countries. The problem is whether or not NATO countries move quickly enough to provide more manufacturing for new drone designs Ukraine needs. The Ukrainians have become accustomed to innovating and then manufacturing new drones quickly. Manufacturers in the United States, Europe, and Russia are not accustomed to going that way. They might be if, like Ukraine, they were fighting for survival.