Episode Description: In this episode of Voices from the Front, callsignIrishman, Deputy Commander for Unmanned Aerial Systems of Ukraine’s 59th Separate Assault Brigade, discusses UAS counter-envelopment operations. He outlines how drones have become the operational centre of gravity – every movement now hinges on them, making drone crews the enemy’s priority target – and describes his brigade’s push to field a dedicated UAS battalion behind each assault battalion. He centres on a case study: a Russian armoured group that infiltrated a neighbouring brigade’s flank under cover of fog and darkness, crossed a river by improvised pontoon and seized a rear logistics hub, and how his crews detected, fixed and destroyed it. He details integrated reconnaissance-and-strike drone employment – Mavic scouts, heavy bombers and fibre-optic FPVs clearing buildings house by house to spare his infantry. He recounts a deep raid to kill enemy FPV crews, enabled by radio disinformation. Throughout, he argues technological overmatch is decisive, preserving soldiers’ lives.

About the series: Voices from the Front: First-hand accounts of the war in Ukraine is a new video series from the Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research. CHACR has been fortunate enough to receive this collection of first-hand accounts, filmed both in Kyiv and in forward locations with officers and soldiers. We offer these to you, at face value, to enable you to draw your own lessons from their content. The broad cross-section of speakers offers insight from the tactical level upwards that we feel the professionally curious (be they military or academic) will find useful and instructive.