Ukrainian Armed Forces use dragon drones at front - Experts assess their usefulness

As noted in Defense News, these drones are not only “scorching” the enemy. They are also capable of first-person footage and monitoring Russian positions.

At the same time, experts believe that such drones can be used only under certain circumstances and have a dual purpose: they are both a cheap way to expose enemy positions and a means of instilling fear in the occupying forces.

“The primary use of these thermite FPV drones is as a defoliant to remove the tree and foliage cover that Russian troops and vehicles are using for concealment in tree lines; and secondarily likely intended as a psychological weapon due to the nature of the effects thermite would produce in contact with skin,” said Justin Bronk, a senior researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

At the same time, the high temperature of the mixture can damage or destroy caches of equipment and ammunition in a single flight.

“They can be employed for specific purposes for which explosive effects are not ideal, and be useful to burn abandoned vehicles, for instance, saving explosive warheads for missions requiring kinetic effects,” said Federico Borsari, a research fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis in the United States.

Both experts noted that drones are a suitable drone option for delivering incendiary mixtures at slow speeds due to their low cost and precise maneuverability.
However, the danger of using termites is the possibility of uncontrolled fires that could burn civilian infrastructure and non-military objects. The use of thermite munitions is not prohibited, but it is not easy, experts say.

“It would be legitimate and legal to use them as defoliants to remove cover, and this holds unless they would a) hit civilians or b) there was a significant risk the subsequent fire would endanger civilians – contrast this with Russian use of thermite last year in an indiscriminate manner,” said Matthew Savill, director of military science at RUSI.

Background

In early September, a video of the use of a so-called dragon drone by the Ukrainian military appeared on social media. These drones use a special mixture to “shower” Russian positions with fire.

At the end of last year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that in 2024, our country plans to produce and transfer one million FPV drones to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Read more about whether such a number of drones can change the situation at the front in an article by RBC-Ukraine.