Ukrainian reconnaissance drone “Stork” able to fly into the deep rear of the enemy and find “fat” — in army slang — targets.
Donbasky steppe — among bushes and grass — disguised antennas and other equipment. In an inconspicuous minibus — control point of the intelligence complex “Stork”. This airplane-like drone is capable of flying deep. Its high-quality equipment and camera — allow you to distinguish objects at a long distance and very clearly.
“An enemy mortar was detected, well camouflaged. But we fly high — we see everything: detected — transmitted. Today the gunners contacted us, asking — illuminate it, we will destroy it. So we did — we illuminated it — the guys fired — the mortar was destroyed”, — says a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ZSU) with the call sign “Yacht”.
“Yacht” once a meteorologist, dealing with standards and high-precision instruments. His twin with the call sign “Roy” — in the past, an architect. Before the start of the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, he worked in construction for more than 20 years. Now he — an infantryman.
“At first I was a machine gunner.  ;BpLA (unmanned aerial vehicle, — ed.) appeared — as such a soldier's initiative. Started working on “Maviks” — they have proven themselves perfectly. And then he transferred to another brigade and retrained on the wing, — notes the serviceman with the call sign “Roy”.
Now he is an experienced, versatile specialist in calculating air reconnaissance . He has many significant goals to his credit.
“We were flying in our area, we saw launch sites — there the grass was burnt.< /em> Tracked and noticed camouflaged equipment in the bushes. Reported, sent coordinates. The neighbors said from the headquarters — ready to work. We flew, gave a stream — worked out “Highmars”, and we flew home. And they stayed there to burn”, — says “Roy”.
That's if we're lucky . But the majority of sorties involve systematic and even routine scanning of the front space and neighboring areas. They often literally live in a minibus.
“This is our office, we spend 16 hours in it. Everything is optimized here — so that it is convenient for us to carry out tasks as efficiently as possible. Now everything is turned off, so it is necessary. Here is the control computer, another one, mobile surveillance cameras, duplicating monitor and equipment for data transmission to the central headquarters”, — explains “Yacht”.
Inside — as if in a submarine. The entire space is used extremely rationally.
“Here we have everything we need — things that are needed for work. Two food outlets. It was very cold in the winter — therefore a heater. All kinds of screwdrivers, nuts — everything you need if there are any problems with the board”, — says the serviceman.
On the drone — unusual drawing: four rockets. It turns out that this “Stork” four times attempted to shoot down the Russian anti-aircraft defense (PPO). It was like that until yesterday — now they are finishing the fifth badge.
“One landing , second — they are in different places. They started firing, we can see in the monitor how one missile is flying at us, the other — the Russians wave their hands that they don't hit. We circle above them, then turn around… The sortie was valiant, so they decided to draw four missiles on the fuselage. But there was also a sortie yesterday, they also had air defense — they launched a missile they didn't hit. There will be a’fifth rocket”, — says “Yacht”.
For now — the qualification and level of support of this unit makes it possible to inflict serious losses on the Russians every day, as well as conduct a maneuverable defense. But the soldiers never tire of emphasizing — war is constantly changing. The enemy — learns and adapts, and sometimes adopts Ukrainian developments and solutions. Therefore, the Armed Forces need maximum support.