You’re sitting in the trenches, defending a designated area in some treeline. There is a town behind you and an enemy somewhere in front of you. Suddenly there is a tank coming your way. How will you defeat it?
A simple small FPV drone, worth just a few hundred dollars, can take out tanks and missile systems worth tens of millions of dollars. Image credit: АрміяInform via Wikimedia (CC BY 4.0)
Conventional wisdom would call for you to use anti-tank missiles. And it is still probably the most effective way to go. You may pull out a Javelin missile, which costs somewhere around 230-240 thousand dollars per shot. NLAW is several times cheaper, but we’re still talking tens of thousands of dollars.
There are even cheaper options, such as old soviet RPGs, but the defenders of Ukraine reported that FGM-148 Javelin and NLAW anti-tank missile systems produced far greater damage against Russian armoured vehicles than their standard Soviet-era equipment.
In fact, Ukrainian soldiers are now using more and more FPV-style drones to engage the enemy armour. And for a good reason too – they are much cheaper. In some cases, an FPV drone can cost less than 1000 dollars.
These drones, originally developed for sports and recreation, were modified to fit the military purpose and are ubiquitous and cheap. They have other advantages over conventional portable anti-tank missile systems.
And this is why they call them FPV – first-person view drones. Image credit: АрміяInform via Wikimedia (CC BY 4.0)
First of all, they are much more maneuverable. A simple FPV drone can dive between the trees, turn around, and hit the tank in its weakest spot. They can go to places where conventional missiles wouldn’t even find a tank.
FPV drones are small too. A soldier can carry a few of such drones in his backpack. You attach a charge in the trenches and off it goes. Meanwhile, the NLAW is over 1 metre in length and weighs 12.5 kilograms. Carrying several of them is unrealistic.
Then there are a variety of different FPV drones. Since they are assembled from very simple ubiquitous components, the defenders of Ukraine can alter their abilities. For example, larger drones, which are typically targeting armoured equipment, can carry mortar bombs for a charge.
Mortar bombs are highly effective and quite cheap. Smaller FPV drones carry smaller charges, but are much more maneuverable. In fact, the defenders of Ukraine frequently send these drones deep into the Russian dugouts, which are good enough against artillery, but do not protect from drones.
Some FPV drones can carry conventional munitions, such as mortar bombs. Image credit: АрміяInform via Wikimedia (CC BY 4.0)
It is undeniable that FPV drones and the lessons learnt in Ukraine will change warfare forever. First of all, anti-tank weapons can become cheaper, smaller and quicker to deploy. Secondly, future tanks will be designed with FPV drones in mind. Thirdly, old-school trenches will not cut it in the future and even smaller units will have to have some sort of anti-drone protection.
Of course, there are ways to defend against the FPV drones. Soldiers often shoot them down just with their automatic rifles and there are electronic warfare systems that can pull them out of the sky. But FPV kamikaze-drones will be used in every major armed conflict from here on out.
Written by Povilas M.
Sources: Armyinform, Wikipedia.