Drone warfare in Ukraine: record FPV strike and drone-assault unit doctrine
Three key stories: May 1 - June 3, 2026
More and more, we hear claims that Ukraine has turned the tide. We cannot say this with certainty yet, but Ukraine’s recent advances in drone warfare deserve attention:
Significant damage to Russia’s logistics through the scaling and mass use of middle-strike drones and other capabilities, making the war increasingly difficult for Russian forces;
Ukrainian drones are penetrating multi-layered air defence systems in major Russian cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, reaching as far as the Ural Mountains, and striking strategic sites across the country.
The growing integration of AI-enabled technologies across different domains, including air defence, short- and long-range unmanned strike capabilities.
Some of these developments are addressed in this edition of my newsletter, Drone Warfare in Ukraine:
FPV Drone Hits Target at 103 km: A New Record;
Drone-Assault Units: Ukraine’s New Doctrine;
What Is NATO Doing Wrong? Lessons from the Aurora Exercises in Sweden;
additional developments in drone warfare in Ukraine and Russia.
After weeks of travelling and presentations, I’m returning to my regular reporting on this topic.
Also, don’t forget to check my recent open-access report: Operation Spiderweb: One Year Later.
Thank you for reading and supporting my work!
Ukraine’s FPV Drone Hits Target at 103 km: A New Record
A pilot from the Fenix (Phoenix) border guard unit covered a distance of 103 kilometers using a standard FPV drone and struck enemy logistics. A military-purpose truck was hit, as reported by the Fenix border guard unit. This is a record-breaking operation, as multicopter FPV drones usually hit their targets at 25-30 km.
In a comment with Suspilne, the unit said that the FPV drone covered this distance on its own, without a so-called “mothership” (without being transported to the strike area by a fixed-wing UAV). This result was achieved thanks to several factors: “First and foremost, it was the pilot’s skill.
Second, it was the improvement of our drone fleet and its equipment with advanced technologies.
Of course, it is also worth highlighting Fenix’s engineering team, as every drone passes through their hands and is upgraded according to the specific operations it is expected to carry out.”
I spoke with the Fenix unit and received additional details about the drone used, as well as what FPV drone manufacturers should consider when developing systems capable of reaching such distances.
“The FPV drone used to carry out our record-breaking strike was made in Ukraine. It comes from a domestic Ukrainian manufacturer whose drones are supplied to the Fenix border guard unit by the Sternenko Community Charitable Foundation,” the press service of the unit told me.
To improve combat work and effectiveness, the unit remains in constant contact with the manufacturer. They send a batch of drones, the unit tests them, and then provides feedback after use. Fenix communicates all its requests and comments directly to the manufacturer’s representatives, who take them into account. When a new batch of drones arrives, it is already adapted to the frontline needs.
It is worth noting that the need to increase the flight range of FPV drones is not a whim. The enemy understands that, at the tactical level, it is no problem for Ukrainian forces to reach and neutralize any target. Therefore, they move all their activities as far away from us as possible: ammunition deliveries, food supplies, and personnel rotations — the enemy tries to carry all of this out deep in its rear. Moreover, these activities usually take place at night and in the morning, roughly between 3:00 am and 8:00 am. This is precisely why such long-range flights are critically necessary.
“What we have demonstrated now is still not the limit. Fenix pilots are capable of flying even deeper into the enemy’s rear. But every such operation depends on a number of factors:
weather conditions;
the individual experience and skill of the FPV drone pilot;
the skills and knowledge of the pilot’s second operator, who is responsible for signal retransmission;
the location from which the drones are controlled”.
It works well if the manufacturer is willing to listen to combat pilots and adapt its equipment to battlefield needs. There are several important aspects that should receive manufacturers’ attention in the future.
It is important to equip batteries with high-quality power cells and to increase their capacity. This is an important aspect, although not the main one.
Special attention should also be paid to radio receivers. Work is needed to improve their quality, as well as to develop and introduce unique frequencies, because this is currently a rather problematic issue on the battlefield.
The number of FPV drones is growing — and this is a positive development. But operators are beginning to interfere with one another’s work. The signal can be disrupted not only by enemy systems but also by the neighboring friendly FPV drone pilots. And the farther you fly, the worse the signal becomes. If it was possible to fly on different, unique frequencies, this problem would not arise.
It is also necessary to work on improving video transmitters and cameras. The signal deteriorates with distance, while nighttime operations further worsen the image received by the FPV drone pilot. Accordingly, the higher the quality of the camera and the image transmitted by the video transmitter, the greater the chance of successfully carrying out a combat operation.
When I asked my contact in Ukraine’s Armed Forces whether it makes sense to equip simple multicopter FPV drones with more expensive components, he said that it absolutely does. In his unit, improved batteries already allow drones to reach targets up to 50 km away, while improved cameras simply help operators see the target more clearly.
Drone-Assault Units: Ukraine’s New Doctrine
In April 2026, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense announced that the Defense Forces were introducing a new model of warfare: drone-assault units that combine aerial and ground unmanned systems with infantry “into a single system.”