Ukraine’s Grassroots Drone Program Takes Flight

KYIV, Ukraine—In the infield of a practice track outside this city’s Olympic Sports Complex, a motley group of college students and engineers from the Kyiv IT Academy gathered on a cold, cloudy day to showcase their latest achievement—a portable unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system that can be unpacked from a suitcase and deployed in less than 10 minutes.

Frustrated by Ukraine’s lack of investment in UAVs, a university professor decided to launch his own crowd-sourced drone assembly and training program.

As curious joggers circled past, Ivan Dovgal, head of the IT Academy’s robotics lab, placed a modified DJI Phantom drone (about the size of a briefcase) on the ground while his students set up their equipment.

One lanky student in jeans and a sweater snapped together a transmitting antenna while another student in baggy camouflage pants and a baseball cap powered up an iPad, which was the remote control of choice for the day’s demonstration flight.

Minutes later, a platoon of heavily muscled men appeared; they all wore hiking pants and carried military backpacks. They towered over Dovgal and the students as they shook hands and exchanged a few quiet words.

The men comprised a Ukrainian special operations unit known as the “cleaners.” Their mission is to trail regular Ukrainian forces as they retake towns from separatists, rooting out any remaining separatists in hiding who may try to launch terrorist attacks against government troops.

After a few minutes of instruction, one of the IT Academy students handed the iPad controller to a commando. While hovering anxiously over his pupil’s shoulder, the student guided the soldier through takeoff, a few maneuvers and a gentle landing.

“These drones are very, very easy to use,” Dovgal later explained. “Very user friendly. It’s intuitive like an Apple product. You can just turn it on and fly it.”

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While reports Wednesday indicated the U.S. has approved sending unarmed Raven drones to Ukraine, Dovgal and his students have been building drones for Ukraine’s military out of their workshop at the Kyiv IT Academy since May 2014—an operation financed by an online fundraising campaign.

The workshop is a cluttered mess of half-assembled drones, remote-control aircraft pirated for parts and countless other mechanical and electronic components scattered randomly across desks and shelves.

Dovgal, wearing a traditional Ukrainian shirt called a Vyshynka (which has become a patriotic statement in wartime Ukraine), speaks at a rapid-fire pace, often breaking conversation to reply to a student’s question or answer a phone call. He is planning a trip to the front lines in two days to deliver drones to an army unit and conduct a whirlwind training course.

“Our priority now is getting drones in the field,” he said. “We must produce something to send to the warzone. It just takes two to four days to modify, test and get these drones to the volunteers. And only a day or two to train them in how to use it.”

A sharpshooter who trains police snipers but has no military experience, Dovgal was looking for a way to help Ukrainian soldiers after the conflict began in eastern Ukraine last spring. Frustrated by Kyiv’s lack of investment in UAVs, the university professor decided to leverage the skills of his students and engineers at the IT Academy to launch his own crowd-sourced drone assembly and training program.

In a two-day process, Dovgal’s team modifies the DJI Phantom drones, which are available for purchase on the Internet, to carry Sony A-7 video cameras and have greater range. The total cost of each drone and its modifications runs about $2,300.

The modified Phantom drones are inexpensive compared with similarly sized UAVs such as the 4.2-pound RQ-11 Raven, which the U.S. Army flies and costs about $30,000 (each complete Raven system, including control equipment, is estimated at about $250,000, according to GlobalSecurity.org).

Dovgal and his team have fielded about 30 drones since May 2014. And even though the Ukrainian drones lack the sophistication of U.S. drones like the Raven, the feedback from front-line Ukrainian units has been positive, Dovgal said.

Able to reach an altitude of about 5,000 feet and with a horizontal range of more than a mile, the modified drones allow troops to scout enemy positions without mounting foot patrols that are vulnerable to ambush.

“The soldiers tell me, ‘Now we don’t have to walk around and risk our lives,’” Dovgal said. “We have lots of thank yous.”

Dovgal’s drone program prioritizes ease of use and rapid deployment in the combat environment along with minimizing costs. To this end, the IT Academy team leans on commercially available off-the-shelf technology. The operator, for example, views the drone’s video feed through an iPad or smartphone, through which the UAV’s flight path is also controlled.

One of Dovgal’s key goals is to build drones that soldiers can learn to fly after just a few hours of training. Manpower shortages and the unending pace of combat operations has left the Ukrainian military little time to spare for drone pilot training. Therefore, Dovgal often accompanies students and other civilian volunteers to transport the drones to the front lines, where he puts Ukrainian troops through a whirlwind pilot training program.

“It’s much easier to train a drone pilot than a helicopter pilot,” said Dimitri Franchuk, 26, an engineer at the IT Academy and a hobby remote-control helicopter pilot. “And if a drone gets shot down, it’s nothing. If a helicopter is shot down, it’s much worse.”

Dovgal primarily funds his program through an online campaign, occasionally using his own money to overcome any shortfalls. The IT Academy pitches its drones as a cost-effective way to support Ukraine’s military, which has been stretched to its operational limits by a war that has killed more than 6,000 soldiers and civilians in nearly a year, according to the United Nations.

Small drones like the Phantom are able to accomplish some of the same surveillance and reconnaissance tasks as manned aircrafts and helicopters at a fraction of the cost—a key benefit considering Ukraine’s air force is short on both pilots and hardware after suffering heavy losses in 2014.

According to Ukrainian military reports, 23 Ukrainian aircrafts were shot down while supporting combat operations in eastern Ukraine in 2014, representing about 12 percent of the country’s fleet of 187 aircraft at the end of 2013.

The official number of Ukrainian pilots killed was not immediately available.

“All of our best pilots have died,” said Galina Khlopotenko, 30, an engineer at the IT Academy. “These drones save lives.”

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While currently limited to daytime surveillance, the IT Academy aims to upgrade its drones with more sophisticated sensors and weapons in a move to level the playing field between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists.

According to the Ukrainian military as well as U.S. and NATO officials, pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas are equipped with a fleet of surveillance drones supplied by Russia. The Kremlin, however, denies supplying the separatists with drones and other military hardware.

Dovgal declined to specify what type of armaments might go on the Ukrainian drones, but he said the intent of drone-based weapons would be to target separatist UAVs.

If Ukrainian drones achieved such a capability, it would be the first official instance of drone-on-drone warfare.

Dovgal has been appealing to the United States for help since last summer, acknowledging the U.S. military’s experience with the tactical use of drones in combat operations.

“We would like the U.S. to do some training and share some technology with us,” he said. “We would like the Americans to help, but we can’t wait for that to happen. We need something in our hands right now.”

Citing a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity, Agence France-Presse reported Wednesday the United States has agreed to supply unarmed RQ-11 Raven drones to Ukraine as part of a broader $75 million U.S. assistance package of nonlethal aid, including 30 heavily armored and 200 regular Humvees.

While the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) routinely uses drones (which are supplied by independent military contractors) to patrol the Ukraine-Russia border to monitor cease-fire terms, the United States has not previously agreed to send Ukraine drones.

In a February 2015 report, “A Military Assessment of the Russian War in Ukraine,” American Foreign Policy Council senior fellow Stephen Blank called on the United States to supply Ukraine with drones.

“Ukraine also clearly needs UAVs or weapons to use against Russian drones,” Blank wrote.

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After their test flight, the “cleaners” spent a few minutes interacting with the IT Academy students and Dovgal, cracking a few rare smiles as they curiously inspected the small Phantom drone. And then, as if they were a football team breaking the huddle, the soldiers swiftly grabbed their backpacks, loaded into two unmarked vans and drove away. They were scheduled to deploy to the front lines in less than two weeks.

Left alone, the students slowly packed up their equipment, returned to their workshop and went back to work.

“We call ourselves the soldiers of soldering iron,” Franchuk said, driving through Kyiv on the way back to the university. “It makes us feel proud that we can do something to help.”