Calibre interview: Kara Dag CTO unpacks the drone war in Ukraine

“FPVs can cover a zone of 30 km in both directions from the frontlines, so you cannot have reserves anywhere near the line of contact. That means that the best vehicle for attack is your feet – all of the attacks that happen now are with infantry. IFVs drop them 1 km from the objective and retreat really quickly. The infantry attack on foot with support from FPV operators,” John told me, speaking on his phone from a cafe in Ukraine. We were discussing how drones had shaped the war in Ukraine and driving the development of systems like the Obriy 1.3, an FPV drone detector built in Ukraine by Kara Dag, the company that John is the CTO of. 

“In 2022, there was a big inflow of Mavic drones, and right now, every single kilometer of the front is monitored by Mavic drones. There are centres where commanders can see every bit of the frontline, lives treamed through Mavics,” he explained. This has had profound consequences for combat in Ukraine. “That increased the threshold for attacks because we see everything, and they also see everything. So, both sides try not to have more than three vehicles attacking in one direction. If they are all there, then the enemy knows an attack is coming,” John explained, speaking from experience gained in dealing with Ukraine’s armed forces since day one of the invasion. Over the next hour, John provided extensive details and insights into the drone war in Ukraine, and that is the subject of this article. 

Kara dag: From the balconies of Kyiv to the frontlines

As Russian forces concentrated on Ukraine’s borders in late 2021 and early 2022, John was working in investment banking with his business partner. They had to travel frequently for their work and agreed that they could not both be abroad when the invasion started, so they took it in turns to travel. On the morning of the 24th February, it was John’s turn to stay in Ukraine. With a background in software engineering, he started working on a radar to detect drones, staying up late into the night to develop the product from his balcony whilst Russian forces attempted to encircle and seize Kyiv. The radar project was quickly abandoned in favour of a drone detector. The first prototype was provided to one of John’s friends who was serving on the frontline in January 2023. The review that came back was simple, “he asked when he could receive the next 100,” John said. 

Working again from his balcony until the early hours of the morning, John and his team produced the drone detectors and shipped them to various units throughout Ukraine, saving hundreds of lives. At around this time, the Russian armed forces were starting to deviate to some extent from their standard doctrine. Artillery spotters were too afraid to put themselves at risk to find targets, ammunition for indirect fire systems was beginning to run short, and drones were filling the gaps. This included Russia’s larger class 2 drones like the Orlan-10 and Z-16, which gained critical importance in providing targeting information for Russia’s artillery, by then operating with strict daily caps on ammunition consumption. The success of the drone detectors led John and his business partner, Andrew Poberezhniukx, to establish Kara Dag, named after a mountain in Crimea. Kara Dag focused on the small drones, Mavics, Autel, and eventually FPVs, whilst one of John’s friends set up a separate entity to specialise in the class 2 systems. 

The company’s main product is Obriy 1.3, a soldier-worn drone detection system operating in the 1.2Ghz/ 2.4Ghz/5.8Ghz bands. It is capable of detecting DJI Mavic type drones as well as FPVs. “There is always one [Mavic-sized drones] in the air. So, we don’t  bother tracking them right now. Instead, we focus on FPVs, and the video stream can be hacked. So, if you get an alert, you open your screen and if it is you, if you see a selfie, then you start running. If it is a bigger drone, we detect them and fingerprint them, and can tell you what they are,” John explained, before pulling a demonstration setup from his bag, including a small camera and an Obriy detector. He showed me the screen, which had intercepted the camera feed, and was displaying his jumper and iced coffee. 

“There is always one [Mavic-sized drones] in the air. So, we don’t  bother tracking them right now. Instead, we focus on FPVs.”

The system is designed so that every soldier could carry one, it weighs little more than a rifle magazine. The quality of detection increases with the density of detectors. “We would connect the devices into a mesh so that two sets of devices cover different bandwidths. We have an antenna in one place and the screen, if you get an alert, then you check the screen and see who is being attacked,” Andrew Poberezhniuk, one of John’s co-founders explained separately. Adding that in some cases, the operator might be in a position that blocks a drone’s signal, preventing the Obriy from receiving it. In that case, “your brother in arms might have a different line of sight and be able to see the drone,” he added. 

Kara Dag is not standing still, and working to iterate its products. “The competitive advantage we have is in terms of our UHF engineers. They have 20 to 30 years of experience. Our next product will have six parallel channels to scan up to 7 Ghz and another product with 8 channels up to 12 GHz,” Andrew said, adding that there are new drones every second month, “new systems that we cannot detect and we have to do updates. For example, a few months ago, we found out that there were video transmissions in 12 Ghz with FPVs, and we had to adapt.” The company offers its Obriy detectors on the international market for $1,400 (£1,047/€1,243) and significantly less to Ukrainian soldiers. From its early beginnings on John’s balcony, the company now has the capacity to produce up to 1,000 detectors per month, and key to that is automation with code that allows the device to self-diagnose any faults. “The fault rate is now much lower, it was 30% but is now less than 1%,” Andrew said.  

The ease with which drones can be detected has driven the upskilling of pilots on both sides. I’ll let John explain: 

“Professional pilots will fly in gulleys with minimum video power, while less smart ones will take off with max video power and we can use our device to detect takeoff locations and shoot them with artillery or an FPV. Smart pilots live longer.” 

A well-designed flight profile will start with relatively low video power and a low flight altitude, as the distance between the drone and pilot increases, the signal will grow weaker, so the pilot will need to increase the video power. The power of the video feed shapes the warning time that soldiers receive. “If an FPV is quite far from the operator then it will be transmitting at full power, and you will get more warning time. But generally you have between 15 seconds and 60 seconds,” John explained, which helps calrify the challenge that defending against drones has become. 

To try and stay ahead of developments, Kara Dag has other products in the pipeline, like a LiDAR system designed to detect fibre-optic FPVs and a small laser that can be transported on cars running logistics to melt Mavic type drones. As well as a jammer that targets FPV goggles. “Russia also has jammers that target the video links, they are directed at the goggles of the operator so that the drone cannot fly. We at Kara Dag are working on our own product that works on this, and the enemy will see a QR code with advertisements instead of their drone feed,” he said, musing over some of the adverts that could be broadcast to Russian soldiers. He also expressed some skepticism over western systems for countering drones. “There is a lot of European stuff that just sits in warehouses. Jammers like drone guns, we don’t use them, we use omnidirectional jammers because you don’t have time to point the jammer at the drone.” 

Experts strike logistics

The real benefit of drone detectors right now is in logistics. As covered elsewhere on the Calibre Defence website, a common tactic on both sides is to target the movement of men and equipment to and from the frontline. In some areas, the prolific targeting of these routes with FPVs and drones has led to the construction of “drone tunnels”, extensive networks of net barriers along key roads that are designed to catch or block FPVs. Russians quickly adapted to this, using two drones as part of a strike package; one to break the net, and the second to pass through it and engage a vehicle. 

“Every logistics vehicle is equipped with some sort of detector, because they are usually the targets. But once you are in the trenches, then you become less of a target,” John explained – which might seem somewhat paradoxical, but it is by design. The most forward trenches are usually a series of hides and foxholes rather than continuous trenches. This helps reduce their profile and attractiveness for a Russian strike, he said. John continued to unpack the current state of affairs, explaining that “the Russians know that they have to disrupt logistics, and every driver has a device and if they see that their road or car is being watched, they will scatter and try to preserve lives.” 

Ukraine used to use MRAPs and armoured vehicles like Bradleys for logistics, but they have become precious and difficult to maintain. “If a Bradley is hit with an FPV then it has to be towed back and repaired, but it is easier to use a car. If there is an FPV around, you just quit the car and then the car will be destroyed,” John explained. Even here, the economics of war play a role. Moreover, regular cars provide extra layers of survivability because they are not immediately military in appearance, and can drive much faster.  “They [logistics drivers] try to drive faster, and they try not to drive first,” John said, referring to the ways that Ukrainian drivers are trying to deal with Russian fibre-optic FPVs. But in any case, the use of regular cars allows them to be abandoned for relatively little cost, preserving life over equipment. 

“They [logistics drivers] try to drive faster, and they try not to drive first.”

“FPVs can cover a zone of 30 km in both directions from the frontlines, so you cannot have reserves anywhere near the line of contact. That means that the best vehicle for attack is your feet – all of the attacks that happen now are with infantry,” John said, which helps explain why civilian cars have become so important. The saturation that he mentioned earlier makes movements by large vehicles easy to detect, increasing the likelihood of an attack with FPVs. Moving on foot may provide the best chance of not being detected, and so quick resupply with cars also helps ensure that personnel can be quickly brought to, and taken away from the front. Even with the efficacy of Kara Dag’s drone detectors, John was sober in his assessment of the equipment needed to defend against FPVs. “Trenches can only be efficient if they are well isolated and protected – they have to be camouflaged and surrounded with nets so that drones cannot fly into them,” he said. 

Calibre comment

There is a lot that can be learned from Ukraine’s experience of fighting Russia. Its concept of operations that uses uncrewed systems extensively has influenced the British Army’s new doctrine, according to the Times. In that pattern, the Army will have 20% of its combat power focused in conventional platforms like the Challenger 3, 40% of it in long-range strike systems like loitering munitions and artillery, and 40% in uncrewed systems that are reusable. So, with that in mind, as well as the situation outlined by Kara Dag, it is clear that ISTAR dominance can create very difficult situations for an adversary. And that key to achieving that is being able to quickly adapt the technologies, tactics and techniques used to evade and degrade an enemy’s ISTAR capabilities. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on 22nd May, 2025. The featured image is from the Ukrainian MoD, it shows a soldier from the 93rd Mechanised Brigade.