FPV Drones & Artificial Intelligence: How Russia is Transforming Drone Warfare
Summary
TLDRThe video discusses the use of AI-enabled first-person-view (FPV) attack drones in the Russia-Ukraine war. It explains how FPV drones allow operators to see targets from the drone's perspective for precise attacks, but often lose connection due to signal interference. Russia has developed an AI aiming system that allows drones to independently identify and track targets when signal is lost. Combined with mass production capabilities, advanced tech like infrared cameras, and volunteer support, Russia likely has superiority in drone warfare over Ukraine's DIY drone efforts, representing a shift in the conflict.
Takeaways
- 😀 FPV drones allow operators to see from the drone's perspective using a headset.
- 😱 Russia is equipping drones with AI targeting systems to hit targets when signal is lost.
- 😎 Ukraine is also developing AI drones, but likely lacks Russia's scale.
- 🔬 Russia can mass produce cheap drones like the Gadfly Kamikaze drone.
- 🛠 Russia is pursuing distributed manufacturing of drones through volunteer groups.
- 🌙 Russia is using night vision and thermal imaging cameras on its drones.
- 💣 FPV drones are extremely lethal, like a flying grenade.
- 📈 The side that can produce more drones faster may prevail in this war of attrition.
- 🏭 Russia has greater industrial capacity to produce military hardware at scale.
- 👷♂️ Ukraine is trying to mobilize citizens to produce FPV drones at home.
Q & A
What are FPV drones and how are they used in war?
-FPV drones are drones with a camera that the operator views through a headset. The operator sees what the drone sees and cannot move the camera independently. FPV drones are often used to deliver explosives to targets like vehicles, buildings, and troops. Their low cost makes them expendable.
How does AI targeting help FPV drones overcome signal loss?
-AI targeting uses a neural network to identify and track targets, allowing the drone to continue homing in on the target even when signal is lost between the drone and operator. This makes them effective even against electronic warfare jamming.
Why can't Ukraine match Russia's drone capabilities?
-Russia has a much larger military-industrial base and output capacity compared to Ukraine. Russia can produce drones on a far greater scale and integrate advanced technologies like AI more readily than Ukraine.
How are night vision and thermal imaging used on Russian drones?
-Russia is equipping more drones with infrared and thermal imaging for night operations. This allows Russian drones to continue operating effectively at night when Ukraine previously had an advantage.
What is distributed drone manufacturing and how is it used?
-Distributed manufacturing is having individuals build components of drones at home, which are then assembled and used at the front lines. Both sides are utilizing this to increase drone production.
Why can't distributed manufacturing replace industrial capacity?
-Distributed manufacturing can supplement but not replace industrial capacity. Countries like the UK used it in WWII but still heavily relied on the industrial output of the US and USSR.
How are volunteer groups expanding drone production in Russia?
-Russian volunteer groups are mass producing FPV drones, claiming to make 1000 per day. This is aided by Russia's Ministry of Defense and expands drone production.
How are both sides utilizing drones in the Ukraine conflict?
-With limited large scale offensives, drones allow precision strikes to erode enemy forces. The side producing more drones faster may gain an advantage in this attrition warfare.
Why can't the West match Russian military production?
-The West prioritizes profits over purpose. Revamping for wartime production would hurt bottom lines. Russia is more purpose driven and can absorb the costs.
What role has Russian industrial capacity played historically?
-In WWII, Russia could absorb heavy losses and mass produce hardware. A similar capacity allows Russia to produce more drones and other weapons vs. Ukraine.
Outlines
😲 FP drones explained in detail with diagrams.
Paragraph 1 provides a detailed explanation of first person view (FPV) drones and how they work using diagrams. It covers how the operator sees through the drone's camera using a headset, attaching explosives for attacks, and challenges like signal loss.
📡 How AI guidance helps FPV drones overcome signal loss.
Paragraph 2 continues explaining FPV drone operation. It focuses on how signal loss occurs when obstacles block line-of-sight between operator and drone. AI guidance allows the drone to continue homing in on targets without needing a signal.
📰 Western media narratives on Russian AI drone targeting.
Paragraph 3 discusses Western media coverage of AI-enabled Russian drones in Ukraine. It notes how articles portray Ukraine as innovating but overlook Russia's greater ability to produce advanced drones at scale.
💪 Russia's superior military-industrial output and drone quantities.
Paragraph 4 elaborates on Russia's advantages in military-industrial production and drone numbers compared to Ukraine. It explains why Russia can more easily implement AI and equip drones en masse.
🌙 Advanced tech like thermal imaging gives Russia the edge.
Paragraph 5 covers Russia's use of advanced technology like infrared and thermal imaging to make drones more lethal at night when Ukraine had an perceived advantage.
🏭 Distributed manufacturing can't compete with Russia's industry.
Paragraph 6 concludes by discussing Ukraine's distributed manufacturing of drones and why it ultimately can't compare to Russia's industrial capacity and output.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡first-person view (FPV) drones
💡electronic warfare
💡artificial intelligence (AI)
💡targeting
💡infrared imaging
💡industrial capacity
💡quantity over quality
💡distributed manufacturing
💡static war of attrition
💡asymmetrical technological capability
Highlights
FPV drones allow operators to see from the drone's perspective using a headset.
FPV drones are often used to deliver explosives and conduct precision strikes on targets like vehicles, infantry, and boats.
FPV drones are low-cost and simple, using off-the-shelf components like airframes, motors, controllers, and cameras.
A weakness of FPV drones is their signal can be disrupted by obstacles, distance, or electronic warfare jamming.
AI targeting allows FPV drones to guide themselves to a target when signal is lost, making them resistant to jamming.
Russia likely exceeds Ukraine in industrial capacity to produce drones, accessories like AI, and counter-drone EW systems.
Adding thermal imaging gives Russian FPV drones a major advantage for night operations.
Ukraine lacks capability to add IR cameras to drones at Russia's scale due to state control of defense industry.
Russia is outpacing Ukraine in number of drones, with 2x as many assault drones by some estimates.
Russia's industrial capacity allowed mass production of military hardware in WWII, same advantage today.
Russia has volunteer groups mass producing FPV drones, up to 1000 per day by some reports.
Russia can likely add AI targeting to FPV drones at scale due to industrial capacity.
High production and attrition may determine victor in static war of attrition.
Western defense industry is profit-driven, while Russia is purpose-driven, giving Russia advantage.
Russia can likely match or exceed any Ukrainian drone innovation due to industrial capacity.
Transcripts
fpv drones or firstperson view drones
are drones with a camera that the
operator is looking through using a
specialized headset he sees what the
Drone sees cannot move the camera
independently of the rest of the Drone
so if he wants to look somewhere he has
to point the whole drone in that
direction and what these are generally
used for are attaching explosives
different types of ordinance and flying
them directly into an enemy Target it
could be Vehicles like tanks armored
vehicles pickup trucks even boats out on
a river and it could be deeply uh well
fortified infantry uh they have been
used for all of these applications and
the number of applications continue to
grow as troops use them on the
battlefield gain experience and continue
experimenting with them they're very low
cost as you can see there's not much to
them it's a it's an air frame a plastic
airframe usually with four electric
motors a flight controller a battery and
a camera and then whatever explosives
you decide to attach to it they're cheap
to make both sides are using them but
what I want to talk about in this video
is the use of artificial intelligence um
that that makes these drones so much
more lethal by bypassing one of their
greatest weaknesses is the signal
between them and the operator and the
many things that can disrupt it
including obstacles in the terrain but
also electronic warfare which can jam or
Commander the signal of these drones
we'll show you this article right here
first this is from Shephard publishing
Russia claims to have developed AI based
aiming system for kikazi drone and I
will explain in full why this is so
important but before we do that I just
want to help help you navigate
through these Western narratives that
that we have seen take shape since the
Russian special military operation began
in Ukraine in February 2022 this is from
wired this is from March 2022 so the
month after the Smo began Russia's
killer drone in Ukraine raises fear
about AI in Warfare the maker of the
drone claims that it can identify
targets using artificial intelligence
and this is uh the CU drone I believe
from kalishnikov
concern and the article says a Russian
suicide drone that boasts the ability to
identify targets using artificial
intelligence has been spotted in images
of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine the
Drone itself may do little to alter the
course of the war in Ukraine as there is
no evidence that Russia is using them
widely so far
but its appearance has sparked concern
about the potential for AI to take a
greater role in making lethal decisions
the notion of a killer robot where you
have artificial intelligence fused with
weapons that technology is here and it's
being used says Zachary kalenborn a
research affiliate with the national
Consortium for the study of terrorism
and responses to terrorism or
start little did know that yes indeed
these these drones would have an impact
on the fighting in Ukraine and that AI
would eventually end up taking on a much
larger and more important role now while
the article is trying to make it sound
like these drones are going to be
deciding life and death on the
battlefield it should be pointed out
that the AI targeting system that uh
Russia has been developing this is where
an operator picks a
Target the AI recognizes the Target and
uh keeps it insight as the as it guides
the Drone into the target I guess now
would be a good time to actually explain
how this works and why it's so important
and then I will go over the Western
media and how they have been covering
this development so here's a a diagram
here's the Drone operator here
a this is the Drone that he's operating
a first-person view drone here B and you
have to remember firstperson view drone
the operator sees what the Drone is
seeing uh almost as if he was in the
Drone itself it's different than
quadcopters that are used for
observation uh you you you can point the
camera in different directions relative
to the direction of the Drone the fpv
Drone is just looking straightforward
you cannot change where the camera is
looking except by changing the uh where
you're flying the Drone and C is the
entrenched enemy and as you can see
there's some obstacles in the way
there's a hill there's a building and
there are trees in the
way these red lines represent the line
of sight or uh the line of sight of the
signal more specifically again the the
operator is not looking at the Drone
he's looking through the Drone when
we're talking about first person view
drones and that is where the operator is
actually seeing these entrenched uh
soldiers he wants to use this drone to
swoop down and strike
at as you can see when the Drone goes
down uh the pilot is still seeing the
target but the Drone has now left the
line of sight of the signal there
there's trees buildings and a hill in
between him and the Drone and the signal
flickers out and if you've watched a lot
of fpv drone videos you will notice how
the closer the Drone gets to the ground
the worse the signal is and that is that
is what is happening these obstacles
between the operator and the Drone uh
suddenly begin interfering with the
signal the closer the Drone gets to the
ground the more obstacles there are
between the the line of sight of the
signal and the Drone
itself
there's a couple of things you can do to
get around this you could have a second
drone here uh with the letter d and this
is operated by another drone operator
this could be a normal quadcopter you're
using for observation it could have a
repeater for the signal it'll help the
the fpv Drone go further and it'll also
help maintain the signal uh as it
approaches to the
grounds it's a little a little bit more
complicated it requires two operators
two
drones uh and what happens if here
letter E the enemy is using electronic
warfare you can see uh it is emitting
electromagnetic radiation and it's meant
to either interfere with and and blind
the signal of the Drone or even take the
drone over commer the Drone in this case
the Drone can't cannot approach the
target without losing
the signal and becoming useless and
missing its Target so this is where AI
comes in as the Drone uh reaches this
position the operator can see the target
but before approaching it and losing
control of the
Drone he switches over to ai ai will see
the target designated by the operator
and it will look at it optically it will
guide the Drone itself into to the
targets almost as if there was a little
pilot inside the Drone itself the AI is
the pilot it does not require any kind
of signal from the operator it does not
require any sort of guidance by GPS it
simply sees the enemy uh and moves the
Drone toward the enemy until it hits its
Target and that's what uh this is
supposed to represent the AI itself
looking at the Target and homing in
until it hits and destroys the Target so
I hope that diagram makes it very clear
when I read these
articles uh from across the Western
media they're going to talk about this I
hope that diagram helps put a an actual
picture in your head so that we can
understand what exactly they're talking
about that Wired Magazine article really
does not explain why AI is so important
as a matter of fact I think it sort of
misleads readers we have this article
from The Washington Post this is from
July
2023 the war in Ukraine is spurring a
revolution in drone warfare using AI the
Advent of AI enabled drones holds huge
promise for Ukraine's military but may
also be exploited by nefarious non-state
actors and and also by the way may all
already being used by Russia on a much
larger scale I think you can see where
this is all going the article says in an
open field in rural Ukraine a drone
equipped with a bomb lost connection
with its human operator after coming
under attack by electronic jamming
equipment electronic warfare ew but
instead of crashing into the ground the
Drone accelerated towards its Target and
destroyed it the Drone avoided the fate
of thousands of other un crude aircraft
in this war by relying on new artificial
intelligence software that accounts for
the electronic interference now commonly
deployed by Russia stabilizing the drug
drone and keeping it locked on a
pre-selected Target AI capabilities help
the Drone complete its Mission even if
the target moves representing a
significant upgrade from existing drones
that track specific coordinates uh using
GPS which can also be jammed such AI
technology under development by a
growing number of Ukrainian drone
companies is one of several Innovative
leaps underway in kev's domestic drone
Market that are accelerating and
democratizing The lethality of unarm uh
onm Warfare especially crucial for
Ukraine's outgunned military which is
fighting a larger and better equipped
Russian
enemy and what all of these Western news
stories about Ukrainian Innovations what
they all forget to mention is that any
Innovation Ukraine comes up with Russia
can easily match and then with its
industrial might its larger population
it can it could surpass in both quantity
and also quality so that is what they're
talking about that the process that the
Drone is using is that process that I
just showed you using the diagrams it is
uh the operator pre-selecting a Target
and then the AI piloting the Drone
itself into the target using the camera
being able to interpret what it is
seeing on the camera and not relying on
any external signal making it immune to
electronic
warfare and also interference just
because of obstacles and distance
between itself and the operator so that
brings me back to this article from
Shephard publishing Russia claims to
have developed AI based aiming system
for kikazi drone this was August 2023
but but we've heard about this uh much
more recently there the article says the
designer of the gadfly fpv kamakazi
drone claims to have integrated an AI
based aiming system that uses a neural
network to identify targets a Russian
company manufacturing the gadfly
firstperson view fpv kikazi drone has
developed an AI based aiming system for
the
UAV uh onm aerial vehicle according to
an interview with the designer and this
was published by Ria noos this was
August
2023 the aiming system employs a neural
network to analyze identify and assist
in attacking both stationary and mobile
targets with an accuracy uh rate of 90%
a video released with the article showed
the fpv perspective from the Drone with
bounding boxes around moving trucks
stationary Targets in Wood cover and
other
Airborne drones then if you've ever
noticed your your camera on your
smartphone can do this you see the
bounding boxes uh popping up the
depending on what mode it's in and it's
selecting a potential subject for your
photograph you can manually change it
and adjust the settings But ultimately
it's your your
smartphone
using these type of of Technologies
these algorithms to select and focus on
a particular subject now we have drones
that are capable of doing this for an
entirely different purpose now of course
if Russia is doing this and we we read
the the news article about Ukraine
attempting to do this
who ultimately is going to have the
advantage the the nation with the
largest military
industrial base the largest
military-industrial output which is
Russia they have proved this over and
over again whether it's something low
Tech like artillery
shells complex Vehicles like main battle
tanks or even Precision guided missiles
cruise missiles even Hypersonic missiles
Russia is capable of building many more
of these often times with better
capabilities than the west and I don't
understand why anyone would doubt Russia
is capable of doing likewise with drones
uh we have seen many articles Across the
Western media talking about how
outnumbered Ukraine is in terms of these
drones specifically that this is an
article that I have uh got over many
times before this is from The Economist
November 2023 Russia is starting to make
its superiority in electronic warfare
account and this is what the article
says it says Ukraine has trained an army
of some 10,000 drone pilots who are now
constantly engaged in a cat and mouse
game with increasingly Adept Russian ew
operators electronic warfare
operators uh the the favored drones are
cheap costing not much more than $1,000
each and Ukraine is building building
enormous quantities of them but losses
to Russian electronic warfare which
either scrambles their guidance systems
or jams their radio control links with
their operators have at times been
running at over 2,000 a week the smitten
drones hover aimlessly until their
batteries run out and they fall to the
ground neither hardening them against
jamming nor investing them
with artificial intelligence to fly
without a live link to a human operator
are feasible options yet at least for
many drones so
again Russia has the ability to uh use
AI to improve their drones they have the
ability to do this on an industrial
level Ukraine does not the the Western
military industrial complex does not
they're not geared toward that they are
profit driven not purpose-driven
they
prioritize profits research and
development accelerated timelines this
all eats into their bottom line which
they they would do almost anything to
prevent which is why they have resisted
throughout the duration of the special
military
operation
revamping uh the themselves as companies
and collectively as an industry to
actually meet match or exceed Russian
military industrial output the article
then says quantity still wins out over
quality but Russia may have an advantage
there too the Skies over the battlefield
are now thick with Russian drones around
bmot Ukrainian soldiers estimate that
Russia is deploying twice the number of
assault drones they are able to so
Russia has more drones and Russian
drones are more effective have better
capabilities and are constantly being
improved through features like AI
guided targeting for example and I want
to point something else out regarding
these not not just these first person
view drones but drone Warfare in general
it's not just the introduction of AI to
help them uh close in on
targets uh when when the signal is
otherwise
interrupted between it and the operator
there is also this use of night vision
on these drones and as Mark LOD has
pointed out both on my channel during
interviews and other interviews that he
has given Russian firstperson view
drones are now uh increasingly being
equipped with infrared Imaging this is
relatively costly this is not something
that you would uh put on all drones
whether they're used day or night but
Russia is equipping firstperson view
drones uh four night operations and this
is a thermal Imaging system that is
meant to be used once and and obviously
lost when when the first person view
kikazi drone strikes its Target uh and
this is a growing problem and this comes
from Kiev post this is Ukrainian Pro
Ukrainian media Ukrainian based
pro-ukrainian media Russia's night
drones pose a serious new threat to
Ukraine's troops and this isn't just for
first person view drones uh other drones
that drop ordinance on troops and
vehicles are also being equipped with
infrared if you follow the conflict
closely in the footage coming out of the
of the use of these drones you can see
just how much more prevalent infrared
imaging has
become it says Ukrainian soldiers at the
front lines say that Russians have
changed tactics moscow's forces are now
making use of fpv firstperson view
drones equipped with heat detecting
night vision to strike in the darkness a
time when the ukrainians had previous ly
benefited from a technological advantage
well I don't think there ever was a
technological advantage I think that was
just the Western media doing what it has
always
done portrayed Russia as backwards ill
equipped and incompetent when in reality
Russia had always had the
advantage it has just become impossible
to hide it now the article also says
Russians use both light sensitive
cameras capable of seeing in the dark
with minimal lighting and more Danger
thermal cameras more dangerous to the
targets these drones are hunting light
sensitive cameras passive night vision
systems uh collect available light and
amplify it thermal imaging
as gathering information about
temperature differences so two different
strategies thermal imaging is usually
more more costly and difficult to
implement but if Russia is putting these
on first-person view drones for onetime
use it means that they have a an
industrial process set up to mass
produce cheap relatively cheap thermal
imaging systems for these drones then
this article tries to explain why
Ukraine doesn't have this capability uh
or at least not on a similar scale and
it says and they're quoting an aerial
Scout in Ukraine can we convert our
drones absolutely in general it doesn't
matter whether the camera is
conventional or infrared but only the
state can implement this on a large
scale so this goes back to this point I
always make
about Russian industrial output versus
Western industrial output purpose versus
profit and why the West will never be
able to match or exceed Russian military
industrial output at least not in time
to turn the tide in this conflict taking
place in Ukraine not anytime in the four
foreseeable future and this is a reality
that many are coming to grips to and
they're looking for ways to overcome so
also uh from Ukrainian based Pro
Ukrainian media the Kiev independent
this was from relatively recent recently
uh January 13th 2024 Minister urges
ukrainians to create drones for Army at
home the digital transformation Minister
urged Ukraine I to create drones for the
military at home is part of the people's
drone project so the participants can
take a free engineering course to teach
themselves how to assemble a 7in
firstperson view drone at home talk
about what fpv drones are and then they
talk about how these drones are brought
to a collection point they're they're
quality tested and then they're sent to
the front and actually the idea of
distributed manufacturing is not new it
was used during World War II to the UK
use distributed manufacturing to
overcome deficiencies uh in their fight
against Nazi Germany but no one should
Mis make the mistake of thinking that
the UK would have somehow survived and
prevailed in that conflict if it hadn't
been for the United States and the
Soviet Union's massive utterly massive
industrial capability capacity they dwar
Germany Italy and Japan many times over
and it was that that won the war was not
distributed Manufacturing in the UK
every little bit helps of course but if
you do not have the fundamentals of your
military industrial output solved if
that is a major problem distributed
manufacturing is not an alternative
besides Russia is doing it too who who
could have who could have thought so
this is from Forbes this is from
December last year actually Russian
volunteer group claims to make 1,000 fpv
kikazi drones per day per day the fpv
kamakazi has become a signature weapon
of the conflict in Ukraine and
improvised Precision attack drone which
gives Precision lethality to the
individual foot soldier first introduced
by Ukrainian forces fpvs were quickly
copied by the Russians are now appearing
in large numbers Russian volunteer
groups claim that it is producing a
thousand of the drones every single day
the claim appeared in a recent video
which shows large numbers being
assembled and shipped this upsurge is
thanks to aid from Russia's Ministry of
Defense previously opposed to private
initiative so this is this is Russia
doing what Ukraine is attempting to do
and it's obviously going to be able to
do it on a much larger scale with many
times more resources and not only are
these fpv drones going to be
mass-produced but if they decide to
integrate AI targeting that is something
that not not that difficult to do if you
have the basic airframe the the battery
the camera it's just a matter of
switching out the flight controller and
possibly an additional microcontroller
handling the the AI algorith targeting
algorithm the article concludes by
saying the Soviet Union achieved success
in World War II by being able to absorb
heavy casualties and having the
industrial capacity to produce vast
quantities of military hardware we are
seeing something similar now neither
side seems capable of large scale
offensive operations and we have
relative we have a relatively static War
of Attrition where both sides face
entrenched defenses the side which
produces more fpvs and erode enemy
forces fastest may end up as the Victor
but but not just fpv drones everything
else as well tanks
warplanes uh artillery shells artillery
pieces uh absolutely everything is being
made in much larger quantities with
better quality by Russia than Ukraine
and his Western allies and as I pointed
out in many videos uh previously this is
not something that can change overnight
this would take years and years of uh
very extreme
reorganization that the West simply
hasn't even talked about doing let alone
started doing I I most likely will touch
on this topic again if people have a a
general interest in any specific weapon
system just let me know in the comment
section below and I I will cover that
next in the meantime if you thought this
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a lot of interesting information in
there about fpv drones lots of pictures
and videos as well although I would
caution people about watching fpv drone
videos they are essentially a flying
grenade when they hit infantry on the
ground has the same effect on the human
body as a grenade detonating at Point
Blank Range it is extremely gruesome so
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