Few technologies have altered the nature of combat as rapidly as First Person View (FPV) drones. What was once the domain of hobbyists and enthusiasts, racing quadcopters at astounding speeds, is now at the leading edge of a new revolution in warfare. On Ukraine’s war fronts, they’ve become an indispensable weapon, and their influence can be felt across the world’s militaries, challenging armies to rethink offense and defense alike.
In Ukraine, the game was changed by FPV drones. Unlike the bigger fixed-wing UAVs that are more focused on stability rather than agility, these agile platforms live and die on agility and precision. They are operated from concealed positions far in the back, guiding them through live video with astounding precision. They could fly from one set of doors to another, drive into trenches, or attack cars head-on, placing explosive charges with pinpoint impact. Their relatively low cost—often less than $500—has made them widely used, providing Ukrainian fighters with a means of fighting above their heads when they find themselves vastly outnumbered in guns.
Affordability is but the tip of the iceberg. FPV drones are inherently modular, and Ukrainian engineers and volunteers have exploited them in full. With minimal re-configuration, the same generic airframe can be employed as a loitering munition, a mini-bomber, or an intelligence collector. This continuing retooling has enabled Ukraine to deploy thousands of drones to specific missions and evolve designs at a rate traditional defense industries cannot.
Getting it into the fight, however, is no task for the faint of heart. FPV drones were created for racing, and therefore require quick response and sensitive control. Weeks of practice are necessary for experienced pilots to train new ones, and even then, they don’t always succeed. Inclement weather, electronic interference, or one bad turn can spell failure. Estimates are that less than a majority of sorties actually find their intended targets; the rest are lost in crashes or abandoned mid-air. Even veteran pilots admit that stress and uncertainty in combat make such missions tricky.
It is here that artificial intelligence has been coming into its own. Ukrainian operators are employing AI capabilities that offer navigation aid, target recognition, and precision strike accuracy. Semi-autonomous vehicles are capable of range targeting, helping with last-second course adjustments, and even real-time processing of intelligence feeds.
The advantage is a whopping improvement in success rates—some units enjoy 70 to 80 percent effectiveness in favorable environments. Training time is likewise shortened, with drivers being capable of competent operations in hours rather than weeks once AI performs a lot of the work.
Despite improvements, FPV drones are still vulnerable. Electronic warfare is their weakness. Russian and Ukrainian forces employ signal-jamming jammers to knock out drones routinely. Narrow bandwidth and congested airwaves only make matters worse. Some have tried tethered or fiber-optic control schemes to avoid interference, but these sacrifice flexibility and expense.
Other militaries are taking notice. In the United States, the Army recently commemorated a success with its first documented air-to-air kill through an FPV drone. In training in Fort Rucker, Alabama, a miniature quadcopter equipped with a Claymore charge crashed and obliterated another flying drone.
That test demonstrated how FPV systems would provide troops with low-cost, portable anti-drone capabilities without the expense of missiles and bigger defense systems. Military forces view this as a move towards redefining how they perceive airborne threats on the battlefield.
Over the next few years, FPV drones are going to be an increasingly larger component of doctrine everywhere. Ukraine has already developed a separate branch of its military that only deals with unmanned systems, and others are developing the same. Merging AI, modularity, and real-time battlefield deployment is leading us down the path toward a future where drones and conventional forces coexist in every battle.
The problems aren’t far from being resolved—electronic warfare, autonomous boundaries, and pilot training are still seminal issues—but direction is clear. Enthusiast technology once, it has become a force-at-the-front matter. FPV drones aren’t a test anymore; they’re changing the way war is being fought, and their tale is only just beginning.