Piotr Mitkiewicz fights Russia on the Ukrainian front from the first months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During his war career, he specialized in assault tactics and combat drones. As part of his own project, PUAV is active in training Polish soldiers and producing its own drone solutions based on experiences from the Ukrainian front.
Z Peter and I join erstwhile he performs another military mission on Donbas. It tells us about how drones changed the modern battlefield, and the drones took on the sniper tasks to a large extent. He besides explains how the Polish army does not keep up with the dynamically changing reality in the field of drones.
Where is Poland?
Marcin Wyrał, Edyta Żeła: In the first part of this interviewWe talked about the large revolution that the alleged tiny drones introduced to the modern battlefield. Meanwhile, in December there was a panel entitled “Vision of the Armed Forces 2039 and conclusions of the conflict in Ukraine”, which was attended by the most crucial people liable for safety in Poland. The panel stated that the efficiency of FPV drones is at 4-5 percent, and on YouTube we see only the successful ones. That's a very low percentage.
Piotr Mitkiewicz: The issue of utilizing drones is more complicated than Excel tables. I'm going to explain this utilizing the combat task of destroying the bunker. To destruct it, you gotta usage a fewer drones. The first 1 usually goes on to destruct the masking, which is secured by the bunker. Another 1 for any wall he's protected. And so on. Only 1 in turn is able to fly inside and destruct individual inside with a thermobaric charge.
Private Archives / Private ArchivesPiotr Mickiewicz with his equipment before going to positions.
In the Excel table, it will yield low efficiency per drone.
That's right, but that's how the bunker is destroyed. And if specified a drone was designed to destruct an antenna alternatively than a soldier, its effectiveness in the table would fall to zero at all. But he did the job.
During the same panel, officers suggested that all day many soldiers are injured while preparing specified drones for combat flights. Is that true?
It is actual that even fatal cases have occurred erstwhile connecting the explosive to the drone. usually these are improvised charges, and the triggers were made by tiny manufacturers. Thanks to drone schools and professionalization it is little and less. By following procedures, without making mistakes, this can be reduced almost to zero. On my team, I had a professional bomb squad that was preparing explosives and, during the mission, he hooked them up. Similarly, many bomb squads are injured all day during mines and mines. They get hurt erstwhile they make a mistake and don't follow procedure.
What is the effectiveness of FPV drones compared to artillery missiles?
The FPV drone is many times more effective and cheaper. specified a drone hits a precise point. But in artillery, if you have a fresh, unused barrel, you hit 20 m with accuracy. but now most barrels are used, so this radius increases to a fewer 100 meters. As a result, you can usage 5 or 10 drones to destruct the bunker. You can besides usage 10 artillery missiles without any warrant that you will destruct it. And the drone costs respective 100 dollars, and the artillery shell costs respective thousand. Nobody uses artillery if they can usage drones.
Private Archives / Private ArchivesFPV drone ready for use.
In the opinion expressed on the panel, we are able to get hundreds of thousands of tiny drones. I do not know how we can accomplish this with the massive drainage of the world's drone markets through the war in Ukraine. However, they add that Poland should be betting on its own production of these drones. possibly that's the way out?
We make drones as much as nothing. We have our own manufacturers, I know those who can open up the production of specified drones. Only the Polish army would gotta order them. It's so crucial that to win with Russia, you must have quite a few equipment. They fight with quite a few people, but they fight with quite a few equipment. For the last six months I had many conversations with producers, scientists, military, Polish volunteers from Ukraine. We have military programs ready to teach. We have large drone prototypes. We have interesting, unique technologies. We have drone systems. We have device teaching specialists who have been doing projecting for Apple. We just don't have a buyer who wants to invest in this defence branch.
I trained for free – going back to the front
The Polish army has problems ordering especially these tiny unmanned people and here we come to the issue of drones in the Polish army. I know you're being approached by military units asking to train their soldiers. What is the state of the Polish military's cognition about these latest drone trends you're telling me about?
My colleagues and I are ready to communicate our cognition to Polish soldiers, due to the fact that we know how crucial it is in the context of Russia's possible attack on Poland. We have extended cognition of reflection drones, FPV drones, drone construction, wave spectrum analysis, preparation of drone operator positions for thermal, radio, video camouflage, I could trade for so long. There is only 1 problem – the military does not want to usage this knowledge. If they are reporting, these are the bottom-up movements of soldiers at the lower levels, and these are individual meetings.
Private Archives / Private ArchivesPiotr Mitkiewicz during training.
Why just single?
We got commendation. We did these shows for free. The full course lasts six weeks. It can be divided into blocks. But I ran out of private money. I'm back on the front for now. I will return, if my homeland needs me, or I will find backing to carry out the patriotic work of defending the Republic of Poland.
We have late written about the fact that there is opposition to specified training at the top of the army itself, due to the fact that if they were to be implemented, it would turn out that all the wise training schemes invented up there should be thrown into the basket. This text was about the cognition that Damian Duda tried to bring to Polish units, and at any point he was even banned from entering WOT units, fortunately later withdrawn. But a akin pattern applies to specialists in all another field. To what degree are Polish soldiers acquainted with the cognition you bring from the front?
I've met a fewer specialists who realize this war, know how drones work on it, and can fly on it. It's just a fewer specialists, and we request 5,000 trained drone operators for today, actually yesterday, plus electronic combat specialists who should be in all battalion. At the moment, in all Russian assault company, 9% of people are drones. Additionally, there are separate groups serving larger long-range drones.
Private Archives / Private ArchivesA drone prepared to fly for longer distances.
Poland creates drone troops...
But this is about the fact that the drones do not form a separate formation, they are in all battalion, in all company. erstwhile again, I will return to Russian assault companies, where there are 12 drone operators for about 150 people. all reconnaissance battalion must have reconnaissance drones. Artillery troops must have good communication with their own drones. If individual thinks they're coming to the artillery, a group of drones that never worked with them, and it's all gonna work, they're wrong.
So, in the present war, more sense than separate drone troops have specialized drones in each battalion?
Such drone troops would make sense if they were just to suck on fresh technologies, make procedures, and train drones. But yet the drones must be an inseparable part of their own units. The usage of unmanned aircraft during the conflict in Ukraine demonstrated their effectiveness in all types of troops. The FPV drone squad should be in the support companies as well as the mortar. There should be reflection drones in the command company as a complement to reconnaissance platoon.
Nevertheless, in the Polish army there are various sub-divisions that see the request to implement experiences from the Ukrainian battlefield in the area of drones. Together with another Ukrainian war veterans and organizations with real experience of the battlefield, we are ready to supply training for them. In this way, we would transfer the cognition needed to defend against possible Russian aggression
Private Archives / Private ArchivesPiotr Mickiewicz while working on folding a drone.
In Poland, attack easily
8 February Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have detached from the Russian electricity strategy and joined the Western system, through Poland. 50 km of the key part of the connection is on the Lithuanian side, and 160 km on the Polish side, up to the city of Elk. A fewer weeks earlier, an oil tanker coming out of the Russian port broke a cable connecting Finland to Estonia, resulting in an increase in electricity prices in the second of these countries. Many indicate that the date was not accidental, and the attack may be threatened by the land connection of Lithuania to Poland. An explosive drone appears to be a natural tool for specified an attack. Is this a complicated operation for a diversion group?
I don't think so.
Do you have experience with akin attacks on infrastructure?
We only attacked the infrastructure that was within the front.
Which is?
When the Russians occupied fresh areas, they immediately merged with the nearest transformer and dragged specified distinctive white cables from it to their positions. In a battlefield dominated by electronics, having a direct power origin is highly important. From each specified transformer then the cables go hundreds of meters in different directions.
Press materialHow did you respond to that?
We'd send drones immediately and smash a transformer like this. It wasn't peculiarly complicated.
What would happen to specified a transmission line if the Russian diversion group were able to penetrate the border with appropriate drone equipment and explosives?
First of all, specified groups do not gotta go anywhere, but sit inactive in Poland and wait for the signal. FPV drone parts are purchased on Aliexpress or another auction service or straight from a model shop. erstwhile it comes to explosives, our limit is, let's say, not very tight. For me, it would not be a problem to get a fewer kilograms of TNT in Poland – although of course I never tried for it – let alone for Russian diversions. A specialist can carry a kilo of TNT across the border. If a drone with that kind of cargo goes into a building, a roof falls out of that building.
Private Archives / Private ArchivesFor a specialist, folding a drone from available parts is not a problem.
What if it hits the power line?
That's not the line. The same applies to many another critical infrastructure facilities. There's no consequence to FPV drones today.
Can the Polish army usage electronic jamming in our critical infrastructure area?
We can do things like that on the Ukrainian front. Polish law prohibits the usage of jammers in civilian environment. They can be utilized by the military on the ground, but not outside.
It follows that the Polish army is poorly adapted to dynamic changes in drones.
I've been talking to quite a few Polish soldiers and officers lately. There's quite a few energy and a desire for change downstairs. But it's up to you. I see the Polish army as specified a large concrete ball that just rolls in any direction and nobody can halt it. All you can do is get under that bullet and rotation with it.
Private Archives / Private ArchivesPiotr Mitkiewicz while working with drones in position.
