Losing GPS, UAV pilots practice 'flight tracking' on the Ukrainian front line
Apr 24, 2025
Kyiv [Ukraine], April 24: Business Insider on April 23 quoted Dimko Zhluktenko, the Ukrainian UAV control officer, as saying that the frontline area is basically without GPS, so it is impossible to know exactly where the UAV is when it is controlled. He added that it is necessary to rely on cameras from UAVs and compare them with satellite images and maps to determine the control location.
"That's why you have to look at the visual markers that you have from the camera, like a lake, a strange-looking building, an intersection, and you need to rely on all those points to navigate the UAV through the front line," Zhluktenko said. This is not an easy one, and some areas with uniform terrain will make it difficult for the operator to locate the location, the Ukrainian officer stressed.
Another Ukrainian UAV control officer recounted a similar experience, saying that without GPS, they had to rely on visible landmarks on the camera to control the vehicle.
UAVs are becoming increasingly popular and occupy a central role in attacks in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Along with that, the two sides have developed countermeasures, including electronic warfare, jamming radio waves or disrupting the GPS waves of UAVs. The parties also from the reality of the battlefield that the development of UAVs is capable of resisting jamming, for example, the fiber optic UAV that has been widely used by Russia recently.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
