The external pilots of the 414th Separate Brigade of Unmanned Aerial Systems use fibre-optic drones with thermal imaging sensors.

The brigade commander posted the video on his Telegram channel.

The first shots show the destruction of an enemy tank hidden in a garage. The operator of the FPV drone guided the device through the camouflage netting, circled the combat vehicle and hit it accurately in the engine compartment. As a result, the tank caught fire.

Next, Magyar demonstrated how an FPV drone with fibre-optic control flies into a dilapidated hangar and destroys an enemy 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled artillery system.

The video also shows the destruction of a tank barrel, a howitzer and an enemy UAZ off-road vehicle and a URAL truck.

The commander of the 414th Brigade notes the high quality of the image transmission in both day and night channels and the drones’ invulnerability to electronic warfare.

In its post, Magyar also announced the launch of a new fundraising campaign aimed at raising UAH 22.6 million for 1,000 fibre optic systems.

Countering fibre optic drones

At the end of January, Militarnyi reported that the Magyar Birds had received detectors capable of detecting fibre-optic-controlled drones.

A mobile radar station has been developed for the Defence Forces that can detect such drones from several kilometres away.

The video shows how a Ukrainian drone detected and intercepted a Russian fibre-optic drone.

In general, fibre-optic drones cannot be detected by SIGNAL intelligence, as they do not use radio signals to control or transmit video.