Ukraine’s forces are set to use a new quadcopter drone, Kyiv said Wednesday, as the fast-paced drone war shows no signs of slowing down.
Kyiv’s armed forces will receive new “Black Widow” drones, described by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry as reusable, tactical quadcopter drones that can operate during the day or night. The Black Widows can also be used as explosive first person-view (FPV) drones, Kyiv said, and have filled Ukraine’s skies throughout its war efforts.
The rapid and often experimental development of drones on land and in the air, as well as waterborne uncrewed platforms, has defined the more than 2½ years of conflict in the country. Kyiv and Moscow have constantly battled to pull ahead in the drone race and in a competition to cultivate counter-drone strategies.
Ukraine Defense Ministry
FPV drones are a common and effective tool in both nations’ uncrewed arsenals. They can be used to record dramatic battlefield footage where the drone careens toward vehicles before exploding or deployed as reconnaissance tools to guide artillery strikes.
FPV uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) quickly became “a game changer, ” Mykhailo Fedorov, Kyiv’s minister of digital transformation, who is at the helm of Ukraine’s drone efforts against Russia, told Newsweek in December 2023. “They work sometimes even more efficiently than artillery.”
The Black Widow drone is cheap, Kyiv said in a statement. This means it can be used as an inexpensive kamikaze drone to target Russian assets rather than using more expensive or sophisticated means to strike Moscow’s positions.
There is an emerging trend toward multifunctional drones, meaning a UAV or ground drone can be used for other tasks, like reconnaissance or mining, before ferrying explosives to a target.
In recent days, Ukrainian sources have posted footage appearing to show the debut of new “dragon drones,” UAVs capable of spewing fiery attacks and purportedly using thermite.
Earlier this month, Ukraine’s 60th Separate Mechanized Brigade published footage appearing to show this type of drone in action, describing the UAV as a “real threat to the enemy, burning their positions with a precision that no other weapon can achieve.”
“A real dragon,” wrote Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s chief of staff, as he shared a clip showing an airborne drone casting fire over the area below.
Kyiv also frequently uses long-range drones to strike across the border into Russian territory. Moscow said Tuesday that its air defenses had intercepted 144 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight, including 72 over the border Bryansk region and 20 over Moscow.