Le forze operative speciali ucraine utilizzano il nano-drone Black Hornet nell’oblast di Kursk

I first witnessed these being used on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2013 & they had been in use well before that ,mainly being used for clearing compounds . As l have posted before a lot of the gear civilians are claiming is new being used in Ukraine ” basically a testing ground” is years old battlefield proven technology .

My last time personally being involved in their use was during the Xmas of 2016, when l was embedded with the Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF),mentoring them while they did raids for High Value Targets etc. , for the start of the Battle Of Mosul,by then at a guess at least a half a dozen different ISAF member countries had them in their inventory . Even back then despite how many seem to have forgotten ,drone use was common & many of their targeted functions were just as easily provided by the larger drones both commercial & the Iraqi DIY versions .

These Hornets IMO are of limited capability for general battlefield use & more suited to SF use, as they are heavily affected by weather conditions & their short air time is dramatically reduced in windy etc. conditions . The units we used back then ,(hopefully improved),had an expected Max 20 min flight time, but in reality could only be used at 15 min Max intervals ,so with the 2 per station field kit you had to bank on max 30 mins use & then a 45-min recharge.

They were very good for providing aerial views of high walled compounds we were clearing & were found to be most effective ran at 100mtrs high where they were not only silent but virtually invisible ,so we would catch insurgents,firing points , arming IEDs & booby traps etc as well as detecting their escape routes & hiding spots ,weapons being hidden ,stashes etc .For specialized tasks like facial IDing individuals with their HQ cameras they were great,the best operators l saw on them were the UK guys ,they are not as quiet as some would think ,so they would hover them at height above suspected HVT’s & then slowly lower them until the target looked up to see what the strange noise was ,this would give them the chance to use the cameras to their full potential to confirm ID .

In urban combat they were not as useful for close observation as expected as they are easily combated ,but again when used with background noise,down wind & height to obscure their presence they were very good for detecting hasty booby traps & escape route interdiction & observing inside bomb damaged buildings etc .

The Ukrainians as usual will throw the instruction manuals out & adapt them to best suit their desired outcomes,so maybe we will hear of orcs being stabbed to death by a black hornet outfitted with one of those Zaporizzya cossacks combat knife called a “kolodach” taped to it 😉