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Roy🇨🇦 Profile picture
Roy🇨🇦
@GrandpaRoy2
🇨🇦 🇺🇦 Grandfather, OSINT of Ukrainian and Russian Telegram: FPVs, drone munitions, EW, landmines. ❤️my family (grandchildren!), reading, and Kaja Kallas.
Mar 13 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Another Russian blogger in the domination of the battfield by Ukrainian FPVs.

“…in 2025, the enemy has almost completely transferred fire damage to drones, replacing artillery, aviation, and missile weapons with them.
1/ Image “The crests themselves say that 80 percent of the Russian army's losses are due to drones, we have our own assessment, I will not name them, but the fact that we take the Ukrainian drones very seriously is an indisputable fact.
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Mar 11 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
The Ukrainian “Sky Hunter” system uses radars to guide fighter FPVs until interception of Russian fixed-wing reconnaissance UAVs such as ZALA, Supercams or Orlans.
Israeli-made Rada MHR radars are located 5-15km from the frontline.
1/ Image They are only turned on when Ukraine's excellent radio receiver system detects the emissions of a Russian UAV.
The FPV operating team are sent courses and altitudes to intercept.
Corner reflectors on the FPVs can be used to increase their radar visibility to facilitate this.
2/q
Feb 28 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
The mineral deal that President Zelensky will sign in Washington is very different from the first US demands, and in fact will strengthen Ukraine.
A report from European Pravda outlines the dramatic negotiations between US and Ukraine in the unprecedented time of just 2 weeks.
1/ Image On February 12, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent handed Zelensky a draft “partnership agreement”.
It apparently demanded ownership of 50% of Ukraines rare earth deposits as repayment for “US aid debt ”, apparently angering Zelensky as he was pressured to sign immediately.
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Feb 26 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
The flight controller (FC) of an FPV is the brain of the drone, coordinating motor control and sensor data to keep the drone stable and responsive.
It takes data from the pilot (via the radio receiver) and onboard sensors, then adjusts the drone’s behavior in real-time.
1/ Image The FC processes signals from the pilot’s transmitter commands, like throttle, pitch, roll, and yaw.
These come through a receiver connected to the controller.
The FC interprets these inputs and translates them into specific motor speeds.
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Feb 24 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
A Russian blogger comments on the scarcity of Russian heavy drones.
“On this day, we will publish a video of the successful work of the crew of a heavy attack drone (aka agro-drone "vampire", "baba-yaga", etc.) of one of the units with which we work…
1/ “…closely on the project to restore enemy heavy UAVs.
This agro-drone was assembled in our PriZhrannaya UAV-workshop, we made some of the drone parts ourselves, even improved something, …
2/
Feb 18 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Russian heavy aerial bombs with precision-guided glide kits are causing great damage and many Ukrainian dead.
The UMPK glide kits allow Russian aircraft to launch 500kg, 1500kg or 3000kg bombs 30-90km from the frontline, out of reach of Ukrainian air defense systems.
1/ Russian air defense systems have taken heavy losses, but are strong enough to prevent Ukrainian aircraft from interfering, and so far this includes the new F-16s from which much was expected.
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Feb 16 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
Russian blogger “Philologist” continues his candid analysis of Ukraine’s drone domination near Pokrovskii.
Ukraine’s system of separate drone battalions and now brigades allows vital concentration in critical areas.
1/ “In the current situation with the Pokrovsk direction, it is quite obvious that the combination of aerial reconnaissance of the lower skies with strike drones and artillery with an optimized organizational structure and a flexible system of control of fire and strike assets…
2/
Feb 15 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Russian blogger “Philologist” provides a vivid description of overwhelming Ukrainian strength in drones near Pokrovsky.

“‼️ Information from the ground on the situation in the southern section of the Pokrovsky direction.
1/ Image “We have no strength, we don't know what else to do. The sky is completely behind the [Ukrainians]. You can't go further than 3 km from Selidovo, they burn everything to hell.
2/
Feb 15 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Why was Ukraine so far behind the Russians in committing to fiber optic FPVs?
A “Ukrainska Pravda” article explains that as EW jamming proliferated the Ukrainian Army decided to focus on machine vision, considering fiber FPVs too expensive.
1/ Image With machine vision the FPV is controlled by the operator until a target is a few hundred meters away and designated.
He hands over control to algorithms trained by machine learning to recognize the target and fly the FPV until the target is hit.
This defeats local jamming.
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Feb 14 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
A common objection to fiber optic FPVs is that they are a lot more expensive than radio FPVs.
A “Ukrainska Pravda” article discusses plummeting costs as Ukraine embraces fiber FPVs.
1/ Image "Due to the high cost, it seemed that fibre-optic drones would never become widespread, but prices in the Ukrainian market are now falling", said [drone manufacturer Oleksii] Babenko. "Previously, the cheapest ones cost UAH 60,000–80,000 (approximately US$1,400–1,800)…
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Feb 11 • 8 tweets • 6 min read
A catalog of Russian improvised “Vobla” heavy drones, put together by drone units because of the failure of the State to provide them.
Four FPVs slaved to a central control have been attached to a wide variety of frames.
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Feb 9 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
A Russian EW device called “Talisman” (Талисман) is intended to detect and jam drone video frequencies in the 4.9-6.0GHz range.
Usually the control signal frequencies coming from the distant operating station are drowned out by strong local broad jamming of the drone receiver.
1/ Image To jam the video signal of the drone requires having a stronger signal than the drone video transmitter at the distant operating station video receiver.
But the advantage of targeting video is that there are fewer frequencies to jam.
2/
Feb 8 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
If it was dangerousness before for Ukrainian self-propelled artillery to leave the safety of their protected enclosures, it is much worse now with fiber optic FPVs.
The increased range and immunity to vehicle-borne jammers of fiber FPVs is taking a toll.
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Image In the sight of Russian fiber FPVs recently were 2S22 "Bogdan" self-propelled gun on the Tatra Phoenix 8x8 chassis, PzH-2000, and Caesar on the Tatra T815-7 chassis.
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Feb 5 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
FPV motors can be optimized for either torque or thrust, but not both.
Torque is the “twisting” force the motor can deliver to the rotor and propeller.
Thrust is the force generated by the propeller that propels the drone upwards and forward.
1/ Image Motors with higher torque can lift heavier drones or maintain altitude better at lower speeds or with larger propellers.
Higher torque also means better acceleration.
Torque is influenced by the size of the motor, the number of windings, and magnet strength.
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Feb 2 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Russians like to publish their poetry on Telegram.
Here is an example, in this case reinforcing the Russian death cult of suicide rather than surrender.

"One day the war will end..." 🙏💪🇷🇺❤
1/ Image One day the war will end....
"Gatherings" will not flicker in the feed.
Silence will come to the world,
Volunteers will breathe a sigh of relief.
2/
Jan 27 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
Ukraine needs to deploy tremendous numbers of anti-personnel landmines, but has been hobbled by the Ottawa Treaty that bans persistent AP landmines.
Each defensive position requires 200-300 AP landmines to provide a deadly barrier to constant Russian infantry assaults.
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Image Local units have been making their own AP landmines such as the PMD-6 wooden boxmine.
New variants of printed improvised landmines that can be dropped by drones appear weekly.
Some of these are battery powered, while others are mechanical and will persist.
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Jan 26 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Russian blogger “Philologist” describes their use of net-thrower drones.
“To destroy enemy observation UAVs and partially attack UAVs, which, due to the tactics of use, temporarily hang in a stationary position, net launchers installed on UAVs are used.
1/ “They drop a net fired by pyrotechnics on the enemy device located below.
The use of UAVs as air defense systems is carried out by a MANPADS battery, whose servicemen have practically no targets for using their standard weapons.
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Jan 16 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
A Russian milblogger predicts an expansion of the use of fiber optic controlled drones.
“Fiber-optic controlled attack drones are breakthrough UAVs. They are unaware that the enemy has deployed a layered electronic warfare system…
1/ Image “…and because of it, radio-controlled drones are dropping like flies in winter. But fiber-optic drones don't care about it. Moreover, they are hunting for it.”
“B.A.R.S. "Sarmat" has already trained and tested several crews of "Prince Vandal Novgorodsky"…
2/
Jan 15 • 11 tweets • 6 min read
The infamous Russian PFM-1S is a remotely-deployed anti-personnel landmine known as “Petal/Lepostek” or “Butterfly”.
It has a hydromechanical fuze in which detonation and self-destruction are entwined.
The older PFM-1 has no self-destruct and can remained armed for decades.
1/ Image The PFM-1S is a blast landmine containing 37g of liquid explosive intended to severely damage a foot.
The landmines resemble a winged seed pod, designed to spin and scatter randomly into a minefield when deployed by ground launchers, helicopters, and now drones in Ukraine.
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Jan 5 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Ukrainian EW expert Serhii “Flash” Bestkrestnov has published a guide to the military use of the TinySA frequency analyzer.
He also provides firmware to make the device with its many settings more accessible.
Below are some of the valuable capabilities of this device.
1/ Image “The state of the air” can be monitored to determine UHF radio communication frequencies to avoid.
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Jan 4 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
FPV motors must provide powerful thrust for their size, while providing rapid acceleration and sharp maneuvering.
Ukraine’s military effectiveness greatly depends on these small devices.
The two main parts of an FPV motor are the stator and the rotor.
1/ Image The stationary stator consists of coils of copper wire that create a magnetic field when electricity is applied.
It is attached to the FPV arms and holds the bearing the rotor will spin in.
The three wires leading to the stator provide the necessary 3-phase electrical power.
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