A drone made of PIPES and TAPE: Ukrainian "Blyskavka" impresses with CHEAPNESS and ACCURACY

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Artillery incoming. Right on the >> Is everyone okay?

[00:00:03]>> Yeah, everyone's good.

[00:00:05]>> We'll stay on comms, man.

[00:00:06]>> We'll try it. Working on these coordinates now.

[00:00:08]>> Good.

[00:00:10]>> [music] >> This is the most intense moment. Taking off and getting in. 30 seconds in, 30 seconds out.

[00:00:23]>> Everything else is altitude hold.

[00:00:26]>> Yeah, everything else is altitude hold.

[00:00:29]>> Close by, yeah. A dugout has been opened.

[00:00:32]>> Right now, if you heard it, enemy artillery is working on our pilot's position. We're changing our route and heading there. We'll try to hit it so at least it stops and pulls back.

[00:00:49]>> We're getting hit again. We're pulling back.

[00:00:52]>> Copy, copy. Where do we fall back to? Do we even have somewhere, bro?

[00:00:56]>> That road over there.

[00:00:59]>> Go, bro. Carefully.

[00:01:01]>> Yeah, I see my turn.

[00:01:03]>> A bit more left. Orient yourself. You see it? There it is.

[00:01:06]>> I see it. Lower.

[00:01:09]>> Go.

[00:01:10]>> Got it.

[00:01:11]>> All right, we're in.

[00:01:13]>> Nice. Bringing it up a bit.

[00:01:15]>> Watch it.

[00:01:15]>> Right, right. Go, go, go. Yeah.

[00:01:17]>> Damn, that's beautiful.

[00:01:19]>> Something like this.

[00:01:21]>> Yeah, right like that.

[00:01:22]>> Hold it.

[00:01:23]>> All right, just in case. Detonation.

[00:01:27]That image is completely gone now. We've done the strike. As you saw, I'll show you on the map where we operated so it's clearer. That tower I pointed out to you. Right under it, you can see that bush.

[00:01:39]>> Yeah.

[00:01:40]>> That little tower there. We saw it when we were coming in. I spotted it on this.

[00:01:45]And that building, when I locked on, I was coming in like this. And I took that reference. Then you can see I moved over here. That building was already fully visible to me. And I passed along this line here. We oriented using that tower.

[00:02:00]I saw it, and we came in roughly around here.

[00:02:08]This is where we actually assemble our Blyskavicas. We store them here. It's basically a room warehouse where the finished airframes are kept. The guys attach the wings, configure them to their setup, and we store them here.

[00:02:20]It's kind of an improvised warehouse.

[00:02:23]>> The Blyskavica drone itself basically it's an analog our answer, roughly speaking, to the Russian Molniya.

[00:02:29]>> Yeah, symmetrically, yes. It's basically reverse engineering.

[00:02:32]>> Is there anything we changed in it?

[00:02:34]>> We're working on it. The manufacturer is improving the radio link and video transmission. That's basically the only upgrade so far.

[00:02:44]>> What are the guys doing here right now?

[00:02:46]>> This is our balancing rig where the main frame is mounted. You can see those two aluminum tubes there. That's really the basic material setup.

[00:02:55]Two aluminum tubes, plywood, and foam, and that's the drone itself. But that's just what it looks like at first glance.

[00:03:01]The most expensive part is still the electronics, the flight controller and the motors. It costs about 36,000 hryvnias.

[00:03:09]That's a very reasonable price for what it does, range, payload. It carries 8 kg, an anti-tank mine.

[00:03:18]>> So basically it costs like two FPVs. But what's the effective range?

[00:03:23]>> We operate at 30 to 40 km. That's the specialty of our unit. Our target profile is 30 to 40. Other crews can push it up to 60 km. Right now, the guys are balancing it, setting it up, attaching the wings.

[00:03:39]As you can see, this is the frame, the tail section. These parts here, the wings come separately. They're assembling everything now, fixing it, balancing it, mounting the warhead and the battery at the back. It's balanced, so it flies stable and level. Then it's programmed, the flight controller is tuned to our frequency, and at that point the aircraft is ready for combat.

[00:04:04]>> We can send them all to a Kobzon concert.

[00:04:07]They love Kobzon.

[00:04:09]>> Fritz set it up.

[00:04:17]All right, here we go. Let's go.

[00:04:28]This is the Bliskavka manufacturer. They didn't cut corners, they actually put effort into it. They added a rotating camera mechanism, which makes things a lot easier. In fog or other low-visibility conditions, I can tilt the camera down like this, 90° even, straight under me, and see what's going on.

[00:04:49]Or do a quick recon to confirm the terrain and orient myself. Sometimes the fog is so low, you're basically flying under the clouds and can't see the horizon at all, so you rely on that. Or for pre-strike assessment, you look there or there just to adjust your positioning.

[00:05:10]Our target profile, enemy pilots, FPV operators, Mavic operators, and artillery. That's what we're working against. Mostly static targets. We don't chase moving infantry targets like scattered soldiers in the field. It's more complicated, and the drone is larger than an FPV, so you can't really chase someone around for half an hour.

[00:05:33]So, we cover distance, we carry significant payloads. You saw it, 6 to 8 kg, that's serious.

[00:05:39]Even if you don't hit perfectly, the psychological effect alone can shut down the crew on the other side.

[00:05:54]A relay system lets us fly lower to the ground while still keeping a stable signal and video feed. It acts like a radio mast. Instead of raising antennas 15 to 20 m, we can effectively get 50 to 100 m of elevation. That gives us radio horizon, direct line of sight between drone and antenna, and ensures stable communication almost all the way to the target.

[00:06:25]Yes, that's on the marker. Correct, you're on track. Lower.

[00:06:30]Got it. I was corrected, there was a break in the signal. Done. Mission complete. You can clap like on a plane.

[00:06:37]>> So, what was the target?

[00:06:39]>> Enemy pilots.

[00:06:41]>> It looks kind of like a toy.

[00:06:45]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, like a children's model that can accidentally level a house.

[00:06:52]>> Have you worked with other drones of this type from other manufacturers?

[00:06:58]>> For me, it's the first experience. But the guys in the unit have worked with smaller and larger systems, of course.

[00:07:06]>> Did you have fun with it?

[00:07:08]>> Of course. Flying 40 km and hitting targets in How could that not be satisfying?

[00:07:14]>> Guys, tell us a bit about your unit. I see your patch, RE and Ukrainian Volunteer Army.

[00:07:20]>> Uh it all started with me, let's say.

[00:07:23]In 2022, I joined the RE battalion in the summer. Back then, it was made up exclusively of volunteers.

[00:07:32]People who went to war without state support, purely on principle. I was impressed, and I told myself the people I'd want to go to war with are probably these ones. I came in as a chaplain. I was already serving in my local church community, so I entered the unit as a spiritual advisor.

[00:07:52]I helped with supplies, volunteering, handled needs for the guys finding and bringing what was needed, talking to people, holding services, prayers, holidays.

[00:08:04]And since I had some experience with drones before the war, I suggested to the commander, "Let's start developing an FPV capability in the unit." He agreed, and that's how the FPV story in our unit began.

[00:08:28]The guys, as I told you, they stayed volunteers. In the summer of 2025, I was officially mobilized.

[00:08:37]>> What areas has your unit operated in?

[00:08:40]>> We haven't operated on the Kherson direction while being part of Arey, but we've been on the Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Sumy, and Kharkiv directions. The Kursk operation as well. We've basically been almost everywhere. And when you realize that today you suppressed enemy artillery, and it can no longer hit your guys, how can that not feel like How can that not feel meaningful? That's what we're looking for, doing something good and feeling that you're doing something noble.

[00:09:22]>> [music]