"Baba Yaga" is on fire! How Ukraine invented a new type of weapon

It is evening in Ukraine's east. In one section of the Ukrainian-Russian front, a group of soldiers is leaving the unit, having loaded three large boxes into a pickup truck.

After driving some distance, the truck stops. The soldiers take the boxes off the truck, one by one, and take out large quadcopters. The size of a drone is impressive: the distance between its four motors is over a metre.

The team releases the blades, checks the work of Starlink satellite communication system, which is integrated into the drone from the above, attaches ammunition from below, and reports to someone on the radio that they are ready.

The blades begin to spin, making a distinctive alarming hum, and the drone takes off.

Everything looks like a normal mission, but there is one caveat. There is no pilot among the people who unloaded the drone and are now watching it take to the sky. The person who is flying the drone is currently about 500 kilometres away from the take-off point, in Kyiv.

From a warm and comfortable office in the capital's Podil district, the Nemesis drone operator guides it to the point that the reconnaissance gave him. The length of the route is to be a record 27 kilometres for such drones.

At the necessary point, the camera is lowered perpendicular to the ground, and a Russian tank, well camouflaged for the night time, is visible in the drone’s lens. The cameraman presses the button to release the ammunition. A few seconds later, a bright explosion occurs in the location of the tank that looks like a dark spot.

At the same time, in the radio intercepts of conversations from the Russian positions, the name of a mythological creature, weird for this context, breaks through a large number of swear words: "Baba Yaga hit the ground!"

There is no drone in Ukraine named like that. Russians use this word to describe a whole class of attack UAVs manufactured by different companies; they have different specifications, and carry different ammunition.

But all of them have one thing in common: the ability to strike fear into the hearts of Russian soldiers in the middle of the night.

Ukrainska Pravda found out what these drones are, how they appeared, what they are used for, and whether they are really capable of rewriting the world's military strategy textbooks.

Where did Baba Yaga come from?

The story of the mass production of Ukrainian attack drones began on the day of the Russian full-scale invasion. Attack drones existed for a long time before Putin's tanks advanced on Kyiv and other cities, but at the time, they did not play any significant part on the battlefield due to their meagre numbers.

"They were almost non-existent. But when the Russians advanced, we immediately came up with the idea of using agrodrones (large copters used in agriculture and the prototype of today's attack drones – UP) to cause damage at a certain distance. It seemed obvious. There was no Russian electronic warfare at that time. If we had had our current technology two years ago, the Russians would have had no chance. They would have been kicked out of here in a week," one of the members of the Nemesis drone development team shares his memories with UP.

The first such drones were assembled from whatever we could find, but even they could fly up to five kilometres. This was a significant achievement for the first year of the invasion.

The main problem for developers and the military was communication systems.

"There were no established rules for working with communication. That's why the drones' effective range was 3-5 kilometres. So the task was to bring some deadly thing behind the front line, but it was possible only as long as you could see the drone," recalls a UP source among the developers of such drones.

From a human height, the radio signal reaches the drone in a straight line for a maximum range of 7 kilometres. To be able to "see" the copter at a distance of at least 15 kilometres, the operator needs to reach a height of 2-3 metres. But even this does not always help because the physical theory faces the limits of a specific terrain if the drone flies over hills or forests and loses the signal.

Another team of engineers joined the drone industry around the spring of 2022, and now they are producing one of the most famous Vampire attack copters for the frontline. They started by creating an aerial surveillance and reconnaissance system.

"And then we came up with the idea to make a drone on a wire, fly it and see what's happening at the checkpoints, and see the whole map of the battlefield. We started tinkering with the drone on the wire. It was completely different from what we are doing now.

The batteries in the drone deliver a huge current, 200 amps each. To transmit such a crazy current through the wire to the copter, you need a huge voltage. We had to transmit thousands of watts up the wire. It's like a big generator. But how efficient is it?", one of the developers of the Vampire recalls in a conversation with UP.

Fortunately for the Ukrainian army, the engineers modified the idea.

"It became obvious that since we can quickly make a flying machine that carries something large, and the power generation system itself is complicated, we should start by simply making a drone: either a reconnaissance [UAV] or a heavy attack UAV that will carry a payload," the source recalls.

A few similar projects were already on the market at the time, but this technology was not yet widely used on the battlefield. For engineers, the beginning of 2022 was the era of fashion for reconnaissance aircraft. Everyone wanted to repeat the success of the legendary Lelekas and Furies (names of some of the first Ukrainian drones launched into serial production).

However, the Vampire and Nemesis teams, although there were no drones or even names for them at the time, tried to solve several key problems: stable communication, increased range and the ability to carry combat payloads.

In fact, the solutions chosen for their projects by these two development teams now divide the entire large attack UAV market into two conventional groups.

The team of the future Nemesis drone chose to integrate the Starlink satellite communication system, which Elon Musk had just given the Ukrainian Defence Forces access to, into the drone.

The use of Starlink allowed the developers to overcome the limitations of conventional communication and provided them with unprecedented opportunities.

"An idea to set up a Starlink terminal solved the radio horizon problem. The distance between the operator and the drone mattered no more. The operator could control the drone from any location on the planet. Several other teams that made attack UAVs were formed based on this idea. And it was then that we gave impetus to implement this idea in naval drones," recalls one of the Nemesis team members.

The first drone that employed satellite communication was manufactured around May 2022. It was examined by the General with the alias Hunter, who was responsible for creating the first naval drones within the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU). He hired part of the team that integrated Starlink into the drone to work for the SSU.

The engineers who stayed to work on UAVs soon created Lazar, one of the first attack UAVs that showed promise.

At the same time, the Vampire team took an entirely different path. Instead of integrating foreign, albeit cutting-edge technologies, they focused on creating a fully autonomous drone.

"Our ideology is somewhat adventurous – no attachment to anything. Our goal is a completely independent drone. If everything shuts down and there's no connection at all, we still have to fly," the Vampire team says.

"And we think that performing combat missions on the front line in the way the Vampire does is still more convenient. Because depending on the operational situation, you can react somehow. But when the operator is hundreds of kilometres away, it's much more difficult," adds the source.

Initially, outside the development teams, few people recognised the breakthrough nature of the idea of creating attack drones. The military command viewed the manufacturers somewhat indulgently.

The developers admit that at first, they didn't think about how to get their products adopted by the military. Their first attack UAVs made their way into the army not through the General Staff or command, but from the grassroots level of soldiers who took the initiative and began to use these drones extensively.

The manufacturers worked with various businesses that initially bought Mavic and Matrice drones for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and then increasingly purchased the larger attack UAVs. At some point, the army became so filled with these "birds" that the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had to respond in some way – especially since units like the White Wolf of the SSU were destroying hundreds of pieces of Russian equipment, particularly with the aid of attack UAVs.

"For us, engineering enthusiasm merged with the desire to do something necessary for the country. We attended all events related to drones. We even organised such events ourselves. Later, various ministries, the military, and so on supported this. We just walked around, flew, observed, shared our experience, and so on. 

Later, during one of the experiments, we were told that there was a fast track specifically organised to quickly get drones into service. That's how our drone was approved for use, everything came together naturally. The military themselves saw the effectiveness and concluded that an attack UAV was a promising thing," one of the developers recalls.

To-do list for Baba Yaga: key tasks for attack UAV

The main achievement of Ukrainian attack UAVs on the battlefield is that they pushed the Russian equipment away from the front line. The buffer zone, where Russian tanks or other armoured vehicles do not stay overnight, has expanded by tens of kilometres.

In the fight against Russian armoured vehicles at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Javelin, NLAW, and Stuhna anti-tank missile systems set the tone. This was possible because there were hundreds of units of Russian equipment in the line of sight.

The comfortable operating range for all the mentioned anti-tank guided missiles is 2–3 kilometres. However, the word "comfortable" sounds like a significant exaggeration here.

"If you compare our drone with an anti-tank guided missile like a Stuhna, it's a completely different piece of cake. Using a Stuhna, you're sitting in a position, the enemy vehicles are nearby, and you're right on the front line, risking the operator's life. You have to maintain visual contact with the target, aim at it, which means you're just a few kilometres away at best. You fire the missile, and then you have to guide it until it hits the target. In our case, the operator sits in Kyiv, in a warm office with a smoothie, and can launch 3–4 projectiles in one flight," one of the developers from the Nemesis team explains, outlining the shift in approach to modern warfare.

And even if the operator is not in Kyiv but flies a Vampire near the front line, the process still involves completely different conditions.

"What's the range of the Vampires? Already 22 kilometres, and it will increase. FPV drones already fly 12 kilometres. And what's the cost of all this? A reusable drone costs about the same as one missile for an anti-tank guided missile. Plus, you're sitting several kilometres away, somewhere tucked away in a safe place," adds the Vampire team.

Attack UAVs are now capable of reliably penetrating deep into Russian territory. The depth of their operations has increased from 2-3 to 22–27 kilometres.

"It is reliably known that this class of drones has significantly changed the tactics of warfare on their side. They [the Russians – ed.] have to pull back 20 kilometres for the night and then return the same distance to the front. There are many interceptions where they say directly: 'Oh, damn, it's getting dark, we need to get out quickly before the Baba Yaga arrives.'"

15 to 25 km – that's the zone we're currently clearing and actively hunting for enemy equipment. Now, more interesting targets have appeared – things like air defence systems, Buk [anti-air] missiles, and other kinds of stuff. So it's not just hunting for tanks anymore; we're reaching out to more critical targets," explains a spokesperson from the Nemesis team.

Not long ago, their attack UAV, costing tens of thousands of dollars, hit one of the Borisoglebsk electronic warfare systems, which cost around US$200 million each.

Overall, this new type of weapon requires careful consideration of how and for which missions it is best applied. At present, both developers and military personnel using them see at least five main tasks that attack UAVs can and already do perform.

Task 1: A bomber at battlefield’s forefront

There are drones that have already completed 200–250 missions. This mainly involves a takeoff, flights at 5–7 kilometres, hitting targets behind the enemy lines, planting mines and air support during assault operations.

Task 2: Destroying equipment deep into Russian territory

Usually, such drones are slightly upgraded, with ongoing improvements to address any shortcomings, and they have a stronger signal. These attack UAVs fly further and at higher altitudes. Typically, drones operating deep in the rear have a shorter lifespan, but the number of expensive equipment they destroy is significantly higher.

Task 3: Mining 

"Vampires are highly effective at this. Sometimes it happens that our forces retreat from a certain position while the enemy continues to walk over mines in their own rear. They would begin yelling at their engineering service, believing they mined their own roads. But it isn't them; it's the Vampire, which makes it (the mining – ed.) extremely effective.

A lot of enemy equipment is blown up on mines that are ‘waiting’ for them just for a day or two, maybe five," the development team says.

Mining is sometimes used to isolate a certain area of the front. For example, a Russian armoured vehicle arrives, dumps the men into a specific place, and then it does not return to pick them up or bring them any food or drinks – simply because it is difficult to reach them; everything has been remotely mined by attack drones, cutting off the supply routes to their positions. And then, the position is gradually lost by itself: either the Russians are all killed by drones, or they flee on their own.

Task 4: Humanitarian missions 

This particular use of drones became most evident during the disaster in Kherson Oblast, when the Russians blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. Many people were left without access to water, food, or medicine. Drones dropped mobile phones, SIM cards, medicines, water, and food for civilians.

Task 5: Disrupting Russian assaults while supporting Ukrainian ones 

To accomplish this, the drone is operated during the day at the risk of loss. Daytime attack drone flights are extremely risky because they fly at altitudes of up to 150 metres and are easily damaged, even by a machine gun.

But in the heat of combat, the main goal is to disrupt the assault, slow the pace, and destroy the equipment so that the adversary pauses. Attack drones are well capable of handling such missions.

The Vampire team claims that units such as the Da Vinci Wolves aggressively employed drones to cover their own offensive.

In certain situations, Ukraine’s Armed Forces technicians have installed machine guns and even grenade launchers on attack drones.

The drone possesses adequate compensation to withstand the recoil after firing a shot. However, the developers who use such modifications have yet to experiment substantively; there hasn't been such a request from the army yet.

"The military has discovered the optimal use. We suggested employing it largely as an attack drone. For a long time, we referred to it as a 'flying mortar,' which functions similarly to a traditional mortar but can fly longer and hit more accurately. However, the military has boosted its functions with additional features," says one of the Vampire developers.

He adds that drone production is almost entirely automated and can be scaled very fast if necessary. The question is for what, and what kind of missions?

Developers are currently exploring how to make the attack drones even more effective.

There are many important tasks to complete right now.

The initial step is to extend the range of flights in order to reach even larger objectives.

The second task is to counter Russian electronic warfare. Here manufacturers proceed to explain things that are as secretive as they are unintelligible to the average Joe. 

But the biggest challenge that will allow Ukrainian bomber drones to fully realise their potential is the scale of their use in the Defence Forces.

"According to current figures, an average drone performs 10-11 sorties in its lifetime and affects 2-3 pieces of equipment. Certain drones carry out hundreds of mining sorties, while others are lost during the first hunt in the deep rear. However, the average number of missions is between 10 and 11. Each of them results in some type of mining, targeted position or item of equipment.

With Nemesis alone, 158 tanks were destroyed, as well as a slew of other equipment and structures such as warehouses and bases. We counted and discovered that for every dollar spent on our drone, US$50 worth of equipment is destroyed. A ratio of 1 to 50 is extremely good," the Nemesis team explains.

However, despite this tool being used successfully, there are times when skilled pilots in conventional combat units fly their drones only 3-4 hours per week because commanders have "no time for them".

"Wagnerites (mercenaries of the infamous Russian private military company – ed.) once launched a nocturnal assault on one of the front lines. And aVampire was sent to stop them. One drone halted the entire attack. The Wagnerites did a runner, as the ammunition they carried literally exploded on their bodies. There is a video of one Wagnerite running, our bomb exploding nearby, him falling, and his own grenades exploding on top of him.

It was a complete defeat: they retreated, they were overtaken and bombarded. And the Ukrainian unit, who had this attack to repel, did not even move forward to meet them (the Russians) on the battlefield; one Vampire did all the work," recalls the source in the Vampire team, adding:

"Imagine if such systems were ubiquitous in our forces! The enemy would suffer huge losses, and we would only lose drones."

Roman Romaniuk, Ukrainska Pravda

Translation: Yelyzaveta Khodatska, Sofia Kohut, Theodore Holmes

Editing: Ivan Zhezhera