Drones Don't Fear Tanks: Drone Platoon Commander Talks About Destroying Enemy Tank

Modern combat is unthinkable without drones, which have become not only the eyes, but also the deadly force of combat units. It would seem that what can a small, almost invisible drone oppose to the heavy armor of a tank? The answer sounds like a thunderous echo of an explosion. At first glance, an unequal fight has turned into a triumph of intelligence and precision over brute force. This success is not just the elimination of a single enemy armored vehicle, but a demonstration of the superiority of determination, tactics and technology.

An MK correspondent spoke with the commander of a drone platoon and learned how three Yakut “birds” were able to destroy the enemy’s iron monster – a Ukrainian Armed Forces tank.

My interlocutor is "Arzhak", a volunteer from Yakutia. He has been at the front for exactly a year, and in a couple of days he will celebrate his 32nd birthday here. He admits that he did not manage to get into the service right away, but he did not lose hope until the very end. As is known, fortune smiles on the persistent.

Now he is a drone platoon commander of the Yakut volunteer battalion "Bars-2" "Botur". And although the SVO is his first combat experience, "Arzhak's" civilian life has always been filled with extreme sports. Before joining the battalion, the volunteer worked as a senior instructor of the parachute-landing fire service. He says that a real man should always be a defender and in any situation: not to be afraid of natural disasters and to fight back against the enemy. He was fond of motorcycle racing and precision shooting.

The family did not learn about the decision to go to the SVO right away. The young man understood that his decision would be met with hostility, so he told them only when he found himself in the SVO zone. He explained his motives. At first, his relatives were shocked, but then they understood and blessed him.

- I understand that with your experience, asking about difficulties is probably not worth it. But still. What was the most difficult?

- Allergy to wormwood, - laughs "Arzhak". - I didn't even think that I would feel so bad. I couldn't live a day without antihistamine tablets. Horrible. And the heat. As a resident of Yakutia, last summer was hard for me. Fifty degrees of heat, and three months of drought.

Despite the fact that the young man had been trained as a drone operator in civilian life, he initially did not even think that he would connect his service with unmanned aerial vehicles. He applied for another position and trained a lot in his field. However, the situation required a change in specialization. Three months later, "Arzhak" was already assembling FPV drones. And since May of this year, he has become the commander of a group of "flyers". They gained experience in the process, and borrowed something from related companies.

- We found takeoff points and camouflaged them, - the commander shares. - This is a very important point, since the lives of the pilots directly depend on it.

One day, the group under the command of "Arzhak" went on a combat mission as usual. They found a point and started working on enemy dugouts. Neighbors told them the coordinates of the "corridors" along which the enemy was moving. At 10 a.m., they received information that a well-camouflaged tank barrel had been discovered during reconnaissance. It was this tank that had been harassing our soldiers for a long time. The commander decided to try to fly to it.

- Our neighbors also tried to do this, but they failed. The electronic warfare systems of the Ukrainian Armed Forces jammed our drones, - the volunteer explains. - And we just had the relevant frequencies, so I decided to take a risk. And it worked.

The Arzhak group managed to strike the Ukrainian tank three times. Three FPV drones hit the target and completely disabled the combat vehicle. Later, we learned from a neighboring unit that in the evening, Ukrainian soldiers tried to tow away the damaged vehicle, but were spotted in time and destroyed along with the ill-fated tank.

- We didn’t see the tank up close, but we were told that it could have been a Leopard.

The commander admits that this is the first such target in his group's service record. Tanks have never been hit by Yakut pilots before.

- Such moments are of course very energizing. The guys are now even more motivated. And I, as a commander, feel a huge sense of pride for my fighters.