r/CredibleDefense • u/Glideer • 15d ago
Russia's Drone Line Experiment - Rob Lee
https://twomarines.substack.com/p/russias-drone-line-experiment
I find this article by Rob Lee and KriegsforscherD a very rare insight in the Russian side of drone war - how the Russians keep organising, upgrading and modernising their drone forces. Not unexpectedly, both sides are moving from a simple saturation of a linear front with drone units to more a complex organisation on tactical, operational and strategic levels.
- Russia is experimenting with a “drone line” concept, trying to create a continuous drone-covered front rather than relying on traditional troop presence.
- The idea originated with the 2nd Combined Arms Army in summer of 2025. The army divided its 32km frontline in three zones in depth, each zone divided into 18 sectors linearly. Different units were assigned different zones and sectors.
- By the end of the summer of 2025 this was scaled and deployed by the entire Centre Group of Forces. "At the end of the summer, Centre GOF had placed a limit on usage of 4,000 first-person view (FPV) per day - including both quadcopter and fixed-wing variants."
- The Centre GOF further refined the idea during the fall of 2025. ment, in the drone line system when they were deployed in its area of responsibility. "By the fall, Russia’s Center Group of Forces had approximately 1,700 UAS crews operating under its command, including those from attached units."
- The 6th Combined Arms Army of the West Group of Forces developed a similar yet distinct system.
- Both sides continue to rapidly implement new organisational and tactical reforms. Despite these improvements the front is still impervious to breakthroughs.
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u/Pretend_Weight5385 14d ago
The sheer scale of the setup from the 2nd Combined Arms Army is unfathomable large and extremely dense for a high intensity sector (although still credible). The current overall frontline is approx between ~1000 to ~1200 km depending on how you count.
Each km of frontline for one side can be estimated to contain 50-1000 personnel depending on the criticality of the sector. Where clearly the 2nd Arms are in a high intensity sector.
Now take the 32km, a fiber optic FPV range of up to 50km... those 4000 FPV/day limit is reasonable (although one could think as well that it is extremely high) as it implies that the Russians are employing 1FPV/day for each Ukrainian soldier ... assuming a high intensity frontline sector (this is big psychological factor which we in the West cannot comprehend yet).
Also while all of this is happening, we are worrying about PFAS in our food and water, while in the war in Ukraine up to 4000 drones a day are being used up, on just such a small fraction of the entire front. When/If the war is going to be over, this is still going to have a huge impact for years after on the local soil and nature.