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How Ukrainians learn to pilot kamikaze drones that destroy tanks
How Ukrainians learn to pilot kamikaze drones that destroy tanks | GZERO World

How Ukrainians learn to pilot kamikaze drones that destroy tanks

First-person view (FPV) drones are cheap and effective on the battlefield in Ukraine, but the army urgently needs to train pilots how to fly them.

Over two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with ammo running low and ongoing military aid from the West at risk of drying up completely, the Ukrainian army is turning to a small piece of technology that’s having a surprisingly big impact on the battlefield: first person view (FPV drones), Alex Kliment reports for GZERO World with Ian Bremmer.

Originally invented for drone racing, FPVs have cameras that transmit what they “see” in real time to a pilot wearing goggles on the ground. FPVs are fast, hard to track and target, fit into spaces traditional artillery can’t, and can be fitted with explosives to use in kamaze-style attacks. Most importantly, they only cost around $500.

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Handout footage shows smoke rising from what Ukrainian military intelligence said is the Russian Black Sea Fleet patrol ship Sergey Kotov that was damaged by Ukrainian sea drones, at sea, at a location given as off the coast of Crimea, in this still image obtained from a video released on March 5, 2024.

Ministry of Defence of Ukraine/Handout

Is building warships still worth it?

The Ukrainian military said Tuesday it had sunk yet another Russian warship in the Black Sea, this time the patrol ship Sergey Kotov. Kyiv has already put nearly a third of Moscow’s Black Sea fleet on the ocean floor, and they’ve done it by relying heavily on drones. Not just the airborne ones you’ve heard plenty about but also unmanned waterborne drones. These deadly and relatively inexpensive weapons have helped Ukraine to even the seascape against a much larger enemy.

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Midjourney

Ukraine’s AI battlefield

Saturday marks the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Over the course of this bloody war, the Ukrainian defense strategy has grown to a full embrace of cutting-edge artificial intelligence. Ukraine has been described as a “living lab for AI warfare.”

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Ukrainians visit a monument to Holodomor victims during a commemoration ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of the famine of 1932-33, against a backdrop of Russian drones attacking Kyiv.

Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto

Hard Numbers: Russian drones, Malagasy election, Ireland's clashes, China's illnesses, breakaway iceberg

75: Russia launched its biggest-ever drone attack on Kyiv on Saturday, firing 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones at the Ukrainian capital, and all but one were shot down. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack, noting that it came on the commemoration of the 1932-1933 Holodomor famine, engineered by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, which killed several million Ukrainians.

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An AI-generated image of swarming drones.

Courtesy of Midjourney

Robots are coming to a battlefield near you

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing everything – from education, health care, and banking, to how we wage war. By simplifying military tasks, improving intelligence-gathering, and fine-tuning weapons accuracy — all of which could make wars less deadly – AI is redefining our concept of modern military might.

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Houthi fighters fire anti-tank grenades during a military maneuver near Sanaa, Yemen, in late October.

Houthi Media Center/Handout via REUTERS

Iran-backed Houthi rebels drum up trouble in the Red Sea

Houthi rebels appear to have opened a new front in the Israel-Hamas war, targeting maritime traffic in the Red Sea. On Sunday, they hijacked the Galaxy Leader, a Bahamas-flagged cargo ship bound for India, and took 25 hostages of varying nationalities, including Bulgarian, Filipino, Mexican, and Ukrainian. The hijackers then redirected the vessel to a port in Yemen and stated that “all ships belonging to the Israeli enemy or that deal with it will become legitimate targets.”

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Pro-Palestine protesters march in London.

Balint Szentgallay via Reuters

Hard Numbers: Pro-Palestinian protests rock London, Machado prevails in Venezuela, drone shortage woes, Madagascan opposition, joint aerial exercise with Asian allies, a great Great Lake discovery


100,000: In London, 100,000 protesters chanted “Stop bombing Gaza” and waved Palestinian flags as they marched from Hyde Park to Whitehall on Saturday. Officials asked Brits to be mindful of the Jewish community, with Metropolitan Police reporting a 13-fold uptick in reports of antisemitic offenses this month compared to last year.

93: Industrial engineer Maria Corina Machado declared victory in the opposition's presidential primary in Venezuela late Sunday. With 26% of ballots counted, she had 93% of the vote. The question now is whether Nicolás Maduro will allow Machado — who's been officially banned from running for office — to challenge him in the 2024 presidential election.

10,000: Ukraine loses 10,000 drones a month in its war with Russia and is now facing a shortage of parts due to export restrictions by China. Concerns about the impact on Ukrainian defense capabilities have prompted a search for alternatives made elsewhere, including by domestic startups.

50,000: Madagascar’s opposition parties held a rally with 50,000 people to protest what they call an “illegitimate” election process ahead of general elections in November. Last month, the country’s constitutional court dismissed appeals to have President Andry Rajoelina’s candidacy declared void over his dual French nationality, angering opposition politicians who say voters do not want “foreigners” running the country.

1: South Korea, the United States, and Japan have held their first joint aerial exercise in the face of an escalating North Korean nuclear threat and a recent visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Pyongyang. South Korea and Japan host 80,000 American troops and are key American allies in the region.

128: A documentary about the invasive quagga mussel’s impact on the Great Lakes led to the discovery of a 128-year-old shipwreck. Filmmakers came across the Africa, a steamship that went missing in October 1895 while carrying coal from Ohio to Ontario, on the bottom of Lake Huron.

Jörg Prophet, AfD candidate for mayor in Nordhausen, stands in the city center.

DPA/Picture Alliance via Reuters

Hard Numbers: German far right comes up short, Ukraine dreams of drones, a space rock arrives on earth, world trade slows

54.9%: In an upset, Jörg Prophet, of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, lost a promising bid for mayor of Nordhausen the office on Sunday, as incumbent Kai Buchmann kept his job, winning 54.9% of the vote. The AfD has been polling at 21.5% nationwide, but has even more support in Thuringia, which is where Nordhausen is located.

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