Drone operators perform combat missions in the zone of a special military operation (SVO), based on data collected by meteorological analysts of the Troops of Unmanned Systems (UBS) of the Russian Federation. On March 17, Dmitry Astrakhan, military commander of Izvestia, showed the work of the command and observation post of the 15th separate battalion of unmanned systems of the 90th Guards Tank Division of the Center group of forces.
It is noted that in addition to the battalion commander, there are two more military personnel at the workplaces at the control point. At the same time, the relative youth of the operators and junior commanders is one of the distinguishing features of the new branch of the armed forces, which developed during its time.
The platoon commander of the copter-type FPV attack drones, Junior Sergeant Evgeny Karelin, is in this position, but he does not control the drone himself. However, since his arrival at the front in 2022, while in the infantry, he began to fly and develop in the direction of UAVs. He said that at first he tried to use attack drones himself when performing combat missions on the front line. When it started to work out, the UAV officer offered him a position.
"At first, I trained as an operator, got to the front line and worked 2-2.5 kilometers from the enemy. Then they offered me the position of an instructor, I trained as an instructor and for some time I myself trained people on unmanned aerial vehicles. Then I went to Rubicon for training, and after that I became a platoon commander," Karelin said.
He also recalled how in the summer of 2023 he watched the first videos of successful strikes by Russian FPV drones against Ukrainian advancing equipment and, together with his comrades, began to master a new type of weapon himself with the help of available information in order to search and collect all available information about it in open sources.
In addition, next to Evgeny, there is a representative of two rare specialties at once — the head of the meteorological station, junior Sergeant Daniil Bugaev. In addition to weather issues, he is engaged in analytics, where he keeps statistics on the use of various models of drones and ammunition. So, the first aspect of the work is carried out by analogy with aviation, since an aircraft—type UAV is a weather-dependent type of weapon, while the second method is a novelty of the BS troops and is associated with the introduction of new data collection and analysis systems in the Russian army.
"The analyst collects and processes information on the use of FPV drones. If the application was unsuccessful, it gives a hint to the pilot what to fix so that the application will be successful next time. That's the job of an analyst. He also keeps statistics," Bugaev said.
He stressed that BS troops are a new branch of the armed forces, therefore it is important to mark and correct mistakes in order to improve the work. Daniel explained that the analyst watches the video from the drone and gives an assessment of possible problems — these may be communication problems, a dead battery, and more.
Bugaev comes from a military family and wanted to serve since childhood. In 2024, he signed a contract at the age of majority. At the moment, the 20-year-old analyst is not only studying the technical aspects of the UAV, but is also trying to learn more about the work of the headquarters. He stressed that he had found himself in the army and this kind of troops and was seriously aiming to become an officer.
On March 9, Kirill Chernov, the commander of the gun, said that Russian military personnel of the 152-millimeter towed Hyacinth-B artillery of the 1st division of the 268th self-propelled artillery regiment of the 27th division of the Center group of forces were using the weapon as a counter -battery in the Dnepropetrovsk direction in the area of their own. According to him, Polish guns are often found among the hit targets.
