They were always sure that they were the super elite of the Russian army. It was instilled in their heads at the military institutes: "You are the elite! You are the thunderstorm of the world!" And when they finally got to serve and sit down at the control panels of their S-400 air defence systems, they became more and more convinced of their own invincibility by the day.
After all, what could be cooler than the S-400, which was said to be "one of a kind" on TV?
"It was not difficult to find the Russians. However, getting to them is where the real challenge lies," Kostiantyn, a platoon commander of unmanned systems at the 15th Black Forest Artillery Reconnaissance Brigade, says in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.
Usually, the S-400 is protected by several less powerful air defence systems, each of which can and should prove lethal to the reconnaissance drones used by the Black Forest to detect targets.
Therefore, Ukrainian drone operators need to prepare for the mission very carefully. It is better to discuss each point of the route and possible manoeuvres before flying the drone, as it will be difficult to make changes after take-off.
Analysis of the available data gave a general understanding of where the Russian defences might have vulnerabilities. But what if the Russians had some electronic warfare systems in "sleep" mode that the Ukrainians hadn't considered before flight? So with each kilometre of the drone's flight, the operators' unease grew. It's not every day a soldier gets the chance to destroy an S-400 system.
The first drone was following its route when suddenly there was a flash and loss of signal. Obviously, the UAV had been shot down.
"Actually, it was a stupid decision to send a second drone. Because if you're shot down the first time, it means the enemy is active. It's unlikely that they sit around like: ‘Oh, well, this one was shot down, let's go rest.’ The chance of that happening is minimal, no more than a fluke," explains Kostiantyn, laughing heartily.
But the crew made such a "stupid" decision. They launched the second aircraft-type UAV into the air – and it broke through! The operators were amazed and happy to see the S-400 system on the screen but, at first, they could not believe what they were seeing.
"In certain areas, there were S-300s and S-400s that were ceaselessly manoeuvring. But no one made any effort to engage them, as they were far enough away from the line of contact for the crew to relax.
Usually, the Russians keep launchers, radar stations, and command posts separate. But these guys had the nerve to put everything in one place. We looked at the screen and said, ‘This can't be happening,’ but it was. So we had no choice but to hit their entire division with one strike," the UAV platoon commander says.
The Russian equipment turned out to be really good, and the S-400 system even intercepted some of the missiles fired at it. But the rest of the missiles made it through, scattering burning pieces of the S-400 system across the field.
However, every success story has its own fly in the ointment. The crew of the Russian Pantsir air defence system – seeing a fireworks display where the S-400 that they were supposed to cover should have been – urgently returned from their "lunch break." Meanwhile, the Ukrainian drone took a course back to the base but was not destined to make it. The Pantsir had done its job.
"It's a pity the UAV was shot down, but it completed its mission. And we have other similar stories to tell. We destroyed not only S-400s, but also S-300s and S-350s," Kostiantyn recollects.
At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine would have viewed each of these victories like something from a Star Wars film.
After all, at that time, the Ukrainian army had neither missiles capable of hitting such targets nor drones capable of detecting them. Most importantly, there were no trained units that could combine UAVs and missiles into a single system.
Fortunately, in the first weeks of the full-scale war, the Armed Forces decided to create a separate artillery reconnaissance brigade from scratch to perform this task.
The story of the 15th Black Forest Brigade can serve as an excellent backdrop for examining the technological leap the Ukrainian army has made over the years of full-scale war, how drones have transformed reconnaissance, and, more broadly, how artillery philosophy has changed.
Late summer of 2024. A petrol station on the outskirts of a major city in eastern Ukraine sees a typical crowd for this part of the world: smiling but adamant cashiers offering coffee, some local men in old cars, and some military men trying to keep it together.
"Are you here for our 15th Brigade?" a gentleman in civilan clothes asks a Ukrainska Pravda journalist.
The man had a round face, a visible belly, and gesticulated with sweeping ease. He is a perfect figure for jokes about two Ukrainian men or pastoral drawings of Cossacks. The only thing that gives him away as a military man is his look: cold, observant, and businesslike.
"We’ll finish our coffee and leave. The commander is running a few hours late, so we have some time to kill. Follow us and don’t get lost," says the man.
Follow us means to follow an old white car, a throwback to some time last century. Despite its respectable age, the car manoeuvres along the road quite quickly escorting us to the base.
After a lunch of baked chicken, richly seasoned with garlic and spices, and a few strong coffees, Colonel Oleksandr Popov, the 15th Brigade's commander, arrives.
"Some of our men have now been transferred to an assault brigade. That's why we quickly changed all our points of deployment. God forbid some of those who were transferred are captured, and surrendering the point of deployment is the least the Russians can demand under torture. It's better to move everything in advance than to have to pull the deceased from under the rubble later. That's why there is almost no one here now," Popov says over coffee.
Popov does not look like the man whose image comes to mind when you hear the word "colonel." He is a fit young military man who started fighting in 2013 as a captain. He was first a peacekeeper in the Congo and, after coming back to Ukraine in 2014, he served with artillery units.
He commanded a battery covering the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Debaltseve. During that operation, he worked with Oleksandr Syrskyi, the current Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Being stationed at the same command post, they both suffered attacks from an annoying Russian tank that kept popping up, firing several shots at them, then hiding.
Sometime in 2017, the army command started talking about the need to establish a separate unit for the Rocket and Artillery Forces, which would be exclusively dedicated to reconnaissance.
"We realised that we had very few assets that could deliver information to the Rocket Forces and Artillery units. There was an imbalance that had to be resolved somehow: there were a lot of assets to carry out attacks, and at that time there was still enough ammunition but not enough information as to what they should be firing at. No artillery piece will fire until you tell it where to do so," Popov recounts.
The main problem was that artillery reconnaissance lagged behind the requirements of the time in terms of equipment, and even more so in terms of efficiency and coordination between different units.
Parallel to increasing Russian aggression before 2022, the era of drone warfare set in. If the army wanted to be effective, it had to incorporate that technology.
But in the good old Ukrainian tradition, the necessity was discussed but the brigade was created only after the full-scale invasion in 2022.
"Everything happened in exactly two weeks, very quickly. Because we were already needed," Popov explains with an ironic smile.
The new nature of combat after 24 February 2022 – a full-scale conventional war involving all branches of the armed forces – placed strict requirements on the newly formed brigade.
Firstly, it was necessary to quickly increase the Armed Forces of Ukraine's technical capabilities in obtaining various types of intelligence: to launch large-scale UAV operations, revive the destroyed electronic and radio intelligence units, and to integrate state-of-the-art equipment received from partner nations.
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Secondly, it was just as important to manage the constant flow of information well.
"We needed people to analyse information and support artillery commanders in their decision-making. But the military command had no analytical units at the time, so they had to be formed from scratch," explains Popov, who took on the task of forming this new unit.
Thanks to effective organisation, the Armed Forces of Ukraine established a unit that can gather intelligence, process it, confirm targets, relay that information to artillery and missile units, and ultimately verify the impact of strikes.
The unit is also responsible for capturing spectacular footage of Russian equipment being destroyed – an important element of modern warfare.
"The reconnaissance equipment we have is incredibly advanced. Even if we step back and look at the global technological landscape, the weapons in our military unit are absolutely on par with the times," Brigadier General Popov proudly shares.
The Black Forest brigade’s advantage over smaller units is that it is equipped with the latest military technology. Modern large radar systems and other tools enable it to detect the aforementioned air defence systems from great distances.
"Drones identify only a fraction of targets and primarily focus on reconnaissance, refining coordinates gathered by other technical assets within our unit. Essentially, the drone's role is to confirm the target," explains the commander of the 15th brigade, sharing the secret to his unit's success.
While the "other technical assets" are predominantly of western origin, the unmanned systems in the Black Forest brigade are mostly Ukrainian. It’s clear that the modern western drones received from partners have also proven themselves effectively in the brigade. However, the main "workhorses" still carry Ukrainian assembly certificates.
"It's great to have some western systems; they're very advanced and impressive," reflects Popov as he sits behind the wheel of his service vehicle.
The car – a beat-up throwback to the early 2000s – doesn't really give the impression of that of a high-ranking official. However, its suspension handles the bumpy, winding roads of some of Donbas’ ravines quite well. Its headlights pierce through the darkness, illuminating patches of gravel, intersections hidden among the bushes, and a steep descent down a crumbling asphalt path.
"The car isn't new, but it runs quite well, and the headlights cast a nice even light," I chime in with a compliment about the old vehicle as the brigadier general responds.
"Yeah, this is a good example of why I don't like it when old 'clunkers' are brought to the brigade. We’ve had to replace nearly all the suspension components, and the headlights were completely swapped out. There are many little things that end up being costly. The brigade spends several million a year just on repairing all the vehicles.
So, we try to secure new vehicles for the guys on missions so they won't break down in the field," Popov says with a smile as he gazes down the bumpy dirt road. He continues:
"Getting back to the aircraft… When you have hundreds of planes, each one occasionally needs repairs, and it's best to do so quickly. If something happens with the crew and the pilot needs a consultation, it has to be right then, not later. In situations like this, it’s great that Ukrainian manufacturers are nearby and always ready to step in, help out, and make repairs. They can get it done in two weeks, not six months."
The Ukrainian Shark reconnaissance drone is the most widely used in the 15th brigade.
Interestingly, the Shark, which has already become legendary, did not exist before the full-scale war’s outbreak. Like the Black Forest brigade, this UAV emerged as a rapid response to the new realities of combat that unfolded after 24 February 2022.
We met Dmytro Khasapov, head of the Ukrspecsystems company, which developed the Shark, at a café in Kyiv. When asked how this drone came to be, he offered an unexpected response: "It was a step back for us as a company."
Seeing the confusion his response caused, Khasapov suggests starting from the beginning – with the Russian aggression of 2014.
At that time, Dmytro explains, the Ukrainian army found itself in a critical situation, facing severe shortages across the board, including drones.
Military intelligence quickly realised that drones would play a crucial role in future combat, prompting a decision to develop this area of operations. Initially, drones were purchased from the international market, particularly from China. The first to take to the skies were Chinese Mugin drones, which were adapted to meet the needs of the Ukrainian army. However, over time, China cut off the supply of components.
When it became clear that importing drones could no longer meet the army's needs, Ukraine began exploring options to create its own products.
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This led to the development of the first USS PD-1, or ‘People's Drone.’ Initially, the product was far from perfect.
"At first, let’s say there were both ups and downs. There were times when the wiring was just taped together, when the body was still made of foam, and many other things that seem ridiculous in retrospect. But we even made it to the international arena and acquired foreign contracts," recalls Khasapov.
Over time, the PD-1 evolved into the PD-2 – a more powerful drone packed with numerous interesting features that its predecessor lacked.
"The drone evolved into the PD-2, which features automatic takeoff and landing, over 12 hours of flight time, and a range of more than 180 kilometres. It is a serious piece of equipment at the international level.
So when the full-scale invasion happened, the PD-2 immediately played a significant role in operations to defend Kyiv. At that time, we had planes ready for export. Naturally, we decided to cancel all those shipments and gave everything to our forces that were resisting the aggressor," Khasapov says.
However, the realities of 2022 revealed that the PD-2 was too complex to operate and too labour-intensive to produce, preventing it from becoming a mass-market product.
The army needed a cheaper, more readily available drone – thousands of them were required.
"We sat down and decided that, as a company, we needed to take a ‘step back’ that would lead to a significant leap forward for the industry and a boost for the market.
We decided to minimise the complex features we developed for the PD-2 and provide a highly simplified mass-producible drone. However, it still needed to be of sufficient quality to perform all the tasks required for reconnaissance and artillery fire adjustment," Khasapov explains the company’s strategy.
That's how the Shark electric UAV was created. It's as simple as possible, with an obvious interface and a minimal control panel; it's just a laptop.
It was fitted with a straightforward, catapult take-off system, simple landing controls, and an easy 5-day training course for pilots.
Even so, the Shark is a mass-produced UAV with excellent tactical and technical characteristics. It has a flight radius of up to 80 kilometres and a flight time of up to four hours.
The first UAVs were not perfect. However, the developers had a huge competitive advantage over foreign companies; they were physically in Ukraine with those who flew their UAVs.
"We are very grateful to our users, who constantly give us feedback about our drones. Now, the Shark we had in 2022 and the one we have today [in 2024] are two completely different versions of the same product. We have upgraded it so that all our operators are satisfied.
The anti-jamming system has a different connection (anti-GPS signal jamming – Ukrainska Pravda). The landing system has been improved. We fitted another mounting bracket with cameras, which now have a tracker that locks on to the target.
You don't have to do anything; you just look at the screen, see the target, and transmit the coordinates then artillery does its job.
"Almost everything in Shark has been refined," says the director of Ukrspecsystems with pride.
The developers had to increase their R&D department fivefold to cope with the flow of feedback from the frontline and quickly adapt the product to real combat needs. Their customer service team works 24/7.
"We decided for ourselves that we will be a company that completely closes the production cycle and has its own ecosystem: we have our own control system, mounting brackets, and unmanned equipment. We are moving entirely into this kind of RSC – reconnaissance and strike complex – so to speak.
This is when a single control terminal provides control over all of our intelligence systems, receives data from them, and transmits the coordinates, along which the attack drone flies and strikes the target. Thus, we are a single ecosystem that covers all frontline needs," the USS director shares his view on the future development of its drones.
Meanwhile, in preparation for a technological leap forward, the company has taken another "step back." Again, the Mini Shark UAV was created in response to a military request.
It is designed for short-distance operations, up to 20 kilometres and flights lasting up to two hours.
Mini Shark is a very mobile version of the aircraft. The PD-2 comes as a set of three aircraft and 16-17 large boxes of equipment. The Mini Shark, however, fits in a backpack.
"If a task requires running somewhere, launching a drone from hand, observing, then packing up, and running on, then Mini Shark is just about that," explains Khasapov.
Thus, the company makes it possible to conduct deep reconnaissance at up to 180 kilometres with the PD-2, operational reconnaissance with the Shark for 80 kilometres, and control the front line to a depth of 20 kilometres using the Mini Shark – all within a single ecosystem.
"We are actually no longer interested in a 20-kilometre range. Our task is, as we call it, is low deep strikes; up to 30 kilometres and beyond," Kostiantyn, commander of the Black Forest drone platoon, tells Ukrainska Pravda.
We talk with him [Kostiantyn] and his fellow pilots in a residential area of one of the cities of Donbas, where their platoon is based.
Brigade Commander Popov, whose soldiers occupy several locations in abandoned houses, says their gardens are some of the sad hallmarks of war.
"It's an image of broken dreams. People worked to build this house for themselves. They dreamed of how they would live in it, but then the war came and drove people out. We try to make repairs to such houses for the owners, to keep everything clean. But whether someone will ever return here to live is the question," Popov explains, looking around the garden thoughtfully.
Carried away by our conversation, Popov and I made our way to a location, though Pokrovsk’s centre. When we reached the centre, we realised that the Russians' nearest positions were only 10 kilometres away.
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Although, nothing in the locals’ behaviour even suggested that the Russians were at Pokrovsk’s doorstep. People were drinking coffee near the pizzeria, women with baby strollers were calmly walking along the sidewalk, and, as if from the film The Matrix, a gorgeous blonde-haired woman in a red dress confidently paraded along the bumpy pavement.
And yet the feeling that you are in Donbas, on this thin strip of solid ground above an abyss that is shrinking by the day, falling into the depths of war, gradually sets in. The conversation becomes more restrained, and the sentences shorter.
The crews have just arrived at their positions, returning from a mission and are unloading equipment from new vehicles. There are many people bustling around the yard, and a very serious Tokyo corgi is running around in patrol mode.
Instead of feeling desolate, the yard has the atmosphere of a small military ant hill.
"All the resources go to the infantry, so our upkeep is down to us. The operator cooks, drives, and guards.
We even joke that we will open a PCC, a private cargo company, when the war is won. We immediately warn newcomers that we load and unload more here than hunt the enemy," jokes Petro, the chief sergeant of the UAV unitʼs platoon.
To talk in a calmer environment, Petro invites us into the gazebo hidden behind the house, which is covered with grapevines – a rare sight.
There, we continue a four-way conversation with the aforementioned Petro, Kostiantyn, and Denys, the commander of one of the crews. Until 2022, everyone was a civilian: Petro, for example, is an engineer with a diploma from Kharkiv Aviation University, and Denys is a long–distance navigator in the Navy.
"We didn't have a single career military officer in our unit at the time of its creation. And now there are no people on flights who were in the army before 2022. Only when one of our initial crews grew into a battalion did personnel officers appear.
But the fact that most of our people were not in the army is a plus. We are more flexible, more inclined to take the initiative, and more willing to submit ideas for improvement," Denys shares his observations.
The guys say that during the short time it took to transform their unit from an electronic warfare company into a UAV Battalion, their roles and main priorities changed dramatically.
"We focused on priority targets. I believe we’re on the right course in not chasing everything we find. There are reconnaissance groups in other units that can handle that kind of work. But we concentrate on priorities. And those aer air defence systems," explains chief sergeant Petro.
"If you hit a tank, you’ll help the infantry on a small section of the front. But if you destroy a Tor or a Pantsir, you’ll clear an entire sector for aircraft, both manned and unmanned, to operate freely and inflict much greater damage on the enemy," Petro elaborates on his point.
There were few pilots and drones at the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion, so artillery reconnaissance’s main mission was to monitor the line of contact. However, infantry units on the front were so saturated with their own short-range reconnaissance UAVs by the summer of 2024 that the pilots from the Black Forest Brigade could shift their focus to working deeper behind Russian lines.
This is what platoon commander Kostiantyn refers to as a "low deep strike".
"A Mavic drone is enough to hit a mortar. The gun operates 10–15 kilometres behind the line of contact, so something like a Leleka, Furiia, Valkyrie, or even a Mini Shark UAV is better suited for the job.
But many infantry brigades, using their connections, are getting full-fledged Sharks now and using these drones in ways that aren’t their intended purpose. The Shark is supposed to be working deeper behind enemy lines, not hunting infantry right at the line of contact. It’s used to greater effect there," Denys explains.
To clearly understand what is meant by "greater effect," we can say that the 15th brigade managed to find and destroy over 30 air defence systems – essentially an entire Russian air defence regiment.
This is, in fact, one of the main reasons why commander Popov can confidently say that his brigade has no issues with receiving supplies and weapons. Those who make decisions and allocate assistance to Ukraine’s Armed Forces see the results and support the unit that’s making a difference on the battlefield.
"We’ve found and destroyed quite a lot. But what pleases me is that these systems can’t be restored or built from scratch, even within a year. It doesn’t matter how much these systems cost. What’s important is that they’re incredibly technologically difficult and time-consuming to rebuild. That’s why our work is so valuable.
And many of these systems have already burned out – EW systems, state-of-the-art radar stations. We’ve even destroyed some 2023 prototypes that hadn’t yet gone into mass-production," Popov explains.
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Incidentally, stories like the destruction of the Russian 2023 development, the experimental Predel-E over-the-horizon radar, highlight several interesting nuances to this new kind of war.
First of all, the very fact that such a radar system was destroyed, one that failed to detect the drone above it and calmly awaited the missile that blew it up, says a lot about its quality.
Secondly, it offers an understanding as to how dangerous it can be to rush to show off results from such developments.
"We hadn’t even landed the plane before the video was posted online. The next day, we destroyed a Buk [anti-aircraft missile system]. And again, that video was instantly shared online. After that, the Russians realised we were an important [target]. They destroyed three of our aircraft with S-400 systems within a week. We had barely crossed the line before seeing S-400 launches and then a blank screen," Kostiantyn says, frustrated.
The third interesting aspect of hitting the Predel-E is that, in the videos leaked online, the drone ’s interface doesn’t resemble any Ukrainian development, suggesting the pilots were operating one of the Western UAVs supplied to Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
The Black Forest brigade doesn’t want to talk about that, but they are eager to share their observations about the differences between different parties’ latest developments.
"The West was a pioneer in this sector. Both the Scan Eagle and their Reape reconnaissance drones, among other systems, are at an unattainable level," says crew commander Denys.
"Western systems have many advantages. First of all, they are highly reliable. They are made in the production facilities of very large companies and you can feel that right away. Secondly, Western systems can be used for a wide range of different operations.
But they also have obvious drawbacks. They’re all very expensive and there are very few of them. The war has exemplified that quantity makes a big difference,’ adds platoon sergeant Petro.
"What kind of drones do the Russians have?" we ask to compare.
"The materials they’re made from, yes, they’re cheap. But they work. You know, at weapons exhibitions, all these Russian drones are polished, with metal fittings and screws made of very lightweight aluminium. But when our guys from air defence shoot them down and bring them here, everything’s held together with zip ties, glue and so on. But they fly.
There are three components that must be good on all reconnaissance drones: the camera, the autopilot, and the communication modules. The Russians’ cameras are obviously not Russian. The autopilot isn’t either. But the most expensive part, the communication modules, the Russians somehow manage to make themselves. And that’s bad," Petro explains Russian equipment characteristics.
"The Russians have cheap, decent drones. And lots of them. It’s like with FPVs. We came up with the idea to turn them into a weapon. The enemy didn’t think of that, but now they surpass us in quantity. Although every sample we intercept is of much worse quality than its Ukrainian counterparts,’ Denys adds with a chill in his voice
Everyone agrees on one thing – to have an advantage in this war, it’s crucial not to stop updating and improving the equipment. That would, quite literally, be a fatal mistake.
"In this war, UAVs are going through the same development process that conventional aircraft once did. First came the reconnaissance drones. Then simple bombers appeared. Now we’ve moved on to interceptors. If we follow the same logic, the next step will likely be fighters and attack drones," Petro muses.
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Every large war has given rise to its own new elite within the military. World War I produced elite artillery units, World War II was the era of armoured forces, and the Cold War was marked by the dominance of aircraft.
"Might we say that the war we’re experiencing is giving rise to a new elite – the drone operators?" – Ukrainska Pravda asks the pilots of the Black Forest brigade.
"We call ourselves the 'the gods’ eyes'. Artillery is the goddess of war, but without us, they’re blind moles. And without them, we’re just helpless observers [in the original quote, a word unsuitable for citation was used – UP]," says Kostiantyn after a brief pause.
"But one can only truly call something a new elite when it becomes a game changer on its own. And UAVs are still a story in which we haven't fully changed anything. Precision artillery and missiles still make the biggest difference.
Although," he pauses for a moment in thought, then continues, "we have completely changed the philosophy around using artillery by giving them eyes."
"Well, I wouldn’t say that. Artillery has radically transformed thanks to UAVs," Petro contests.
"Before drones appeared, artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems were used in batteries of 6-12 machines to simply bombard entire areas. Now, the launchers and guns fire one by one, because UAVs allow for precise fire adjustment.
Even the most reckless Russians no longer work in batteries. It’s become suicidal since drones and missiles immediately target any concentration of forces. But until we have our own means of striking, we won't become the true game changers," the sergeant adds, exhaling a bit tiredly as he blows out smoke.
In the morning, as we wake and prepare to head out, the guys have already left for their positions. Their daily work has given Ukraine’s Armed Forces the ability, through precision strikes, to achieve a tenuous parity with the Russians, who rely on the sheer quantity of their weaponry.
Perhaps, on that day, the Black Forest pilots with their Sharks didn't completely change the rules of the war. But Ukraine might not have lasted this long in the game without their work.
Roman Romaniuk for Ukrainska Pravda
Translation: Myroslava Zavadska, Sofiia Kohut, Yuliia Kravchenko and Tetiana Buchkovska
Editing: Rory Fleming-Stewart