The threat that’s too fast to detect

FPV drones are cheap, small and fast. Hard to detect and almost impossible to react in time and defend against.

A drone this fast does not give you a warning. It gives you a countdown.

A film shot from an attacking drone as it dives out of the sky onto a vehicle, with the drone's own flight instrument over it. The vehicle has stopped, its door is open, and a soldier is out on the ground beside it. A count runs from five seconds down to zero, and reaches zero as the picture is lost.

In those few seconds, you need to hear it, see it, make a decision and engage it.

The cost asymmetry

A drone that costs $500 can destroy equipment worth $5 million

The cost asymmetry means the decision has shifted from whether to engage the target to determining the appropriate number of drones to deploy.

Air defence is not above this. It is on the same list.

A drone costing $500 takes out an air defence battery costing $50 million.

FPV drones don’t try to avoid defences, they target them.

The rate of offensive FPV drone production has exploded exponentially in the last few years, while the costs continue to decrease.

One every 3 seconds

Drones built worldwide in a year: about five thousand in 2022, and more than ten million in 2026 — one every three seconds. The figure beside the chart is that annual total apportioned across the year so far.