Now in its fourth year, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has unleashed upon the world the ‘drone wars’, where these small flying craft have reorganized how high-intensity wars are fought.
In the context of a peer-to-peer conflict with heavy equipment and fortified strongholds, it becomes not a war of movement, but a war of attrition, in which each side wants to destroy the other’s capabilities.
That’s where the drones enter – from the Russian ‘Geraniums’ (Shahed) to the Ukrainian Baba-Yaga, to the myriads of quadcopters used by both sides.
The drones offer a solution costing thousands or tens of thousands – and is capable of destroying tanks, armored vehicles, and other pieces of equipment that cost in a multi-million-dollar range.
While Kiev had the upper hand on this technology in the beginning of the war, this has long since changed, with Moscow’s output now larger than all the western powers combined.
And the tactics have also changed, as an elite Russian drone is making a difference in this phase of the war, and has now seen destroying the valuable HIMARS artillery systems that Ukraine relies on so much.
Russian forces have destroyed a Ukrainian HIMARS with a fiber optic FPV drone 30km behind the line of contact.
This might be one the single best exchange ratio of the war.
$1000 drone vs 3.5 million dollar missile system. pic.twitter.com/NhNLS1b3kv
— ayden (@squatsons) May 6, 2025
The Telegraph reported:
“The attack was reportedly carried out by Rubicon, the Kremlin’s elite drone warfare unit that Ukrainian soldiers have come to fear. Previously deployed earlier this year during Russia’s brutal campaign to recapture the eastern town of Kursk, Rubicon has now been redirected to hunt Ukraine’s most valuable battlefield assets: its US-supplied long-range missiles. There are signs it is succeeding.”
The Joe Biden regime sent no less than 40 of these systems.
The advantage of the HIMARS is sitting ‘deep behind the front line’. But now, as we’ve learned, no place in the rear in ‘safe’ anymore.
“Because of their importance, it is unusual for a Himars launcher to be placed just 10km from the front line. The one that was destroyed near the war-torn town of Chasov Yar was therefore probably being used to hit a target deep behind enemy lines.”
Work of the Russian drone unit “Rubicon” in the Donbass regions. pic.twitter.com/bzPkGCj0Xz
— Spetsnaℤ 007 (@Alex_Oloyede2) May 5, 2025
The Joe Biden regime sent no less than 40 of these systems.
The advantage of the HIMARS is sitting ‘deep behind the front line’. But now, as we’ve learned, no place in the rear in ‘safe’ anymore.
“Because of their importance, it is unusual for a Himars launcher to be placed just 10km from the front line. The one that was destroyed near the war-torn town of Chasov Yar was therefore probably being used to hit a target deep behind enemy lines.”
The Telegraph report counts at least four HIMARS destroyed so far.
And the latest technology employed by Russian drone squads is a real threat to Kiev.
“Unlike previous losses, which mostly resulted from missile or artillery strikes, the latest attack on one of the systems was reportedly carried out by a first-person view (FPV) drone using a fiber-optic guidance cable – a sophisticated and largely jam-proof design that signals a dangerous shift in the conflict. Traditional FPV drones are vulnerable to Ukraine’s electronic warfare systems, which jam incoming frequencies and render them blind mid-flight. But fiber-optic drones are physically tethered to their operators via ultra-thin cables that transmit real-time video and guidance signals.”
The Russian Rubicon drone team published another compilation of Russian FPV drone strikes against Ukranian recon drones.
I counted 24 in this series. pic.twitter.com/kuSI1usYSA
— Heyman_101 (@SU_57R) May 19, 2025
The Russian fiber-optic drones are at this point basically impossible to jam.
The ‘Rubicon’ squad was established back in October 2024 by orders of Russia’s new defense minister, Andrei Belousov – a civilian.
“Its drone pilots now operate in at least seven specialist detachments across eastern Ukraine, carrying out complex, decentralized missions. The unit’s tactics are equally modern. During the Kursk offensive, Rubicon drones reportedly struck short segments of road – just 100 to 300 meters long – from multiple angles at once, catching convoys in lethal ambushes.”
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