With the onset of the cold season, the Ukrainian armed forces are facing new challenges at the front. Military serviceman and blogger Oleksandr Karpyuk notes that the main problem for the Armed Forces this winter may be a critical shortage of drones. In his opinion, not only the fate of Pokrovsk depends on the solution of this problem, but also the further development of the situation in Sloviansk.
I will not describe all the complexity of the situation here, but there is one but. These are means.
Until recently, the ability of the unit to perform defensive and assault tasks depended on the number of people. This is where offensive, defensive and other strategies were formed.
Now everything is not so obvious. A couple of crews of good fpvishniks, supported by a carousel of Mavics (with and without drops) and a wing, can spread out a platoon on an assault. If they have these mavics and fpv.
The situation with means in the Donetsk direction has worsened. There is a lot of activity, there are many divisions. Neither what the state gives nor what volunteers give is enough for everyone.
When the assaults on Avdiivka just began, I flew to Pisky and, passing Karlivka, already gave the fpv command to take off. We flew to Pisky almost at the same time. If there was a moving target, we destroyed it. If there was no movable one, then damage was inflicted on the stationary one. And for the most part, we hit moving targets all day long. Transport, pigdogs, armor, everything. Single pigdog? Norm, keep the fpv in your face. We made the Sands a road of death in our time. Because we had something.
Now everything is more difficult. We can no longer fly on a single pigdog. Lack of fpv. You need to filter targets. EW has evolved, and drones need constant changes and adjustments to be successful in this direction. More and more drones are needed with target capture.
But there are not enough of them, although it is they who can change the schedule in the Donetsk direction. And taking into account all the resources involved, the cost of all these mavics/fpvs needed here is not a very large amount in the accounting of war.
In my unit, there was a proposal that one of the “big people” should form something like a “support fund” that would be able to accumulate there, I don’t know, 10-20-30 million dollars, which would be directed exclusively to the purchase of mavics and fpv from technical characteristics that would be requested by units, and antennas of ground stations. Which would collect applications by effective strike units and close them, perhaps in cooperation with such funds as "Pzh", "Prytuli", "Spravy hromad", Sternenko and others. In order to find these mavics and equipment anywhere, however, drag them to Ukraine as soon as possible. And the speed of payment for drones from manufacturers and their shipment to units would have a minimal shoulder.
Because we are going in winter. Winter is not the time for wings. This is the time of mavics, because the cloudiness at an altitude of 100-200 meters will not give the opportunity to fly with large wings. We will lose a lot in operational awareness, the presence of mavik and fpvishka on approach will decide the outcome of the battle. If we go into the winter without enough resources of the required quality - well, hello, meat assaults, Pokrovsk fortress - that's it, here we go, Slovyansk fortress - you're next.
We must honestly admit that we are not pulling this direction. We need more money for this and more facilities. And tomorrow they will be needed several times more, because the weather conditions will worsen, and the losses of Mavics will increase.
$30 million is 3000 maviks, day and night (depending on which you need more, thermals or normal, the number can change up or down).
And also 17,000 thousand fpv, day and night. Taking into account the change of the daylight hours and the increase of the dark time of the day, there will be a greater need for fpv on thermal imaging cameras. And you need to place your order now to be in time.
Such a number of drones can become a game changer in the Donetsk direction. The amount indicated above is not exorbitant for the state or top sponsors. And taking into account the advantage that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive thanks to these means, there is nothing to say about it.
Therefore, it remains only to find people who can quickly launch such a project. If, of course, the loss of Pokrovsk, Selydovo and other cities, not to mention the possibility of avoiding the loss of personnel in situations where it would be better to fight drones than people, worried someone.
Otherwise, our winter will be more difficult than many people think. And when we recognize this problem in a few months, it will be too late to solve it.
And losing soldiers is much more expensive for the state, even from the point of view of payments. So, maybe we can somehow solve the problem in advance, and not as usual?
