Drone enthusiasts turn hobby into weapon of war
In a workshop in western Ukraine, a group of hobby drone pilots gathered around a table recently as a techni- cian fitted a racing drone to carry a grenade, turning an aircraft found in hobby stores into a weapon in the war against Russia.
Two American businesspeople, who had arrived from the United States with a donation of a dozen similar drones, watched.
The drones are a small part of an unprecedented public response to appeals by the Ukrainian military for resources to help it fight much better equipped Russian forces.
“Basically, we have a little drone hub here,” said a Ukrainian drone operator who for security reasons asked to be identified only by Oleksandr.
He also asked that the location of the workshop remain undisclosed. “We’re building drones and rebuilding existing drones to use in rescue operations, military operations and search oper- ations.”
In practice, many of the hobby drones have a short life.
“The enemy is hitting them, so some of them live for just a day or two,” Oleksandr said. “But in that day or two, they have important missions. We are protecting ourselves.”
The group is also making the drones simpler to control and training Ukrainian service members to use them. The hobby drones brought from the U.S. are first-person view, meaning they have a camera transmitting live images to a pair of goggles. The drones reach speeds of up to 80 mph, and Oleksandr said pilots flying them in professional competitions train for years.
Unlike the U.S., where drone pilots must pass tests, in Ukraine they are essentially unregulated.
“For drone hobbyists in the U.S. to do anything with military equipment is practically impossible,” said Chad Kapper, founder of Rotor Riot, whose holding company Red Cat Holdings supplied 10 of the drones he delivered to Ukraine. “The hobby stuff is unregulated in a certain sense, so they can use as much as they can get.”