Ukraine Increases Medium-Range Drone Strikes on Russian Supply Lines

Ukrainian forces have quadrupled strikes with medium-range drones that target Russian fuel tankers and supply vehicles at distances between 12 and 200 kilometers. The drones operate at low altitudes and use visual navigation rather than GPS, making them resistant to electronic jamming.

Russian military bloggers have described the drones as difficult to detect and resistant to electronic warfare. One blogger who examined a downed drone reported that it uses American Qualcomm chips and maintains communications by hiding signals within civilian Wi-Fi traffic.

Ukrainian media identify the drones as Hornets made by Swift Beat, a company previously known as Project Eagle. The company was established by Eric Schmidt, who signed a July 2025 agreement with Ukraine's Ministry of Defense to supply hundreds of thousands of drones at cost price.

The basic version of the Hornet is reported to cost around $6,000 and has a range exceeding 80 miles. Ukrainian sources state that the drone can lock onto specific vehicle components such as fuel tanks from long range.

Russian military observers have reported that supply routes to occupied Crimea are increasingly affected. Bloggers have described roads resembling those in Afghanistan during the 1980s, with destroyed vehicles scattered along the sides. One observer noted that the situation in low-altitude airspace is deteriorating daily and that jamming attempts become ineffective once a drone has locked onto its target.

Russian sources have also expressed concern that neural network analysis of current operations could lead to fully automated drones within six to twelve months.