MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. The scope of FPV-technology application in Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine is expanding by leaps and bounds, as both sides of the conflict have started using specially created FPV devices for war in the air, Dmitry Kuzyakin, the CEO of the Center for Complex Unmanned Solutions (CCUS), has told TASS.

"Drone warfare in the sky will grow far and wide and turn ever fiercer, as well as other uses of the FPV technologies in combat. We already know several dozen different ‘competences’ of FPV combat systems and know how to work with them. Interception in the air is one of such functions. An aerial interceptor may be equally effective against both uncrewed and crewed aircraft. FPV-drones can fly faster than crewed combat helicopters, and certainly can catch up with unmanned long-range attack drones, reconnaissance drones, multi-copter drones like the Baba Yaga and even small, piston engine airplanes like the Cessna with no problem. Of course, I am referring not to ordinary FPV drones, but to specially designed devices for war in the air," Kuzyakin said.

According to the specialist, such drones have a number of advantages over conventional FPV devices used for hitting ground targets.

"Energy-to-weight ratio and maneuverability are the main distinguishing features. The mass-to-engine thrust ratio is the ratio of the mass of the vehicle to the thrust of its engines. In drones designed for war in the sky, this ratio can reach very high values, which makes their flight more similar to the flight of a missile than a usual quadcopter," Kuzyakin said.

He noted that while it was relatively easy to create a certain FPV device and master its control, there were other problems quite tricky to tackle.

"These include spotting a target in the sky and laying an intercept trajectory. Even after catching up with a target in the sky, you still need to be able to not miss it and hit it with a high degree of certainty. This depends primarily on the skill and knowledge of pilots. Not only special drones are needed for war in the air. There are to be special people - FPV interceptor pilots who have undergone special training," he said.

FPV technology

The CCBR CEO believes that drone warfare is the way of the future.

"The drone war in the sky will expand and become ever more ferocious, just like other areas of FPV combat application. First of all, it will affect the means of reconnaissance of air targets and of targeting interceptor drones. We are closely studying the experience of the enemy and, as much as we can, help our special organizations dealing with this issue. The CCBR is proactively conducting research and development in all areas of air confrontation on its own, but the pace of such research is extremely slow due to the lack of funding," the specialist said.

Kuzyakin likened the advent of FPV weapons to the emergence of gunpowder in the late Middle Ages.

"FPV technologies have become an effective tool in the hands of the military on the battlefield. It might seem to the average person that the new drones are just a new means of delivering ammunition over the heads of the enemy or an effective guided tool for destroying tanks. This is all very true, however, it is a tiny part of the huge number of different applications of this truly inexhaustible technology. The emergence of FPV in today’s warfare is equivalent to the role gunpowder weapons began to play in the late Middle Ages. Those countries that failed to master small arms and cannon weapons in all their diversity disappeared without a trace," he concluded.