Drone Forensics · Dimas (brigade)

What Is Dimas Flying?

Decoding the price he quoted, and using it to guess his actual drone fleet. The number was hiding in plain sight, in the wrong currency.
"if we speak about fiber optic drones it cost near 75,000 to one I think, and satellite drone cost, it not big" — Dimas, 2026-05-23 call
2 research threads, exchange-rate + Brave1 Market pricing, cross-checked · 2026-05-25

What this is

Dimas dropped one number on the call, "near 75,000 to one", and never said the currency. That single figure, decoded correctly, tells you what class of drone he flies, what your prototype has to cost, and whether your earlier notes were wrong. This page decodes it and maps his three drone "gradations" to real systems.

Picture this: you are speccing a prototype budget with AJ. If Dimas's drones cost 75,000 dollars each, you have room for expensive compute and sensors. If they cost 75,000 hryvnia (about 1,800 dollars), your whole AI add-on has to fit inside a couple hundred dollars or it is dead on arrival. Getting the currency right is the difference between a viable wedge and a fantasy.

Correction first · the price was misread by ~40x

My earlier notes said
~$75,000
USD per fiber drone (flagged "audio unclear")
→
Almost certainly
75,000 UAH
hryvnia ≈ $1,800 USD per drone

At the late-2025 / 2026 NBU rate of about 42 UAH to 1 USD, 75,000 hryvnia is roughly $1,800. A complete 20 km fiber-optic FPV on the Brave1 Market costs 77,000 to 107,000 UAH, so "75,000" lands right at the bottom of that bracket. A $75,000 USD FPV would be ~40x reality, more than a US Switchblade loitering munition. Ukrainian military drones are priced and bought in hryvnia. The hryvnia reading is the only one consistent with the real market, confidence very high. The briefings and the main report have been corrected.

01 Where 75,000 UAH sits on the price ladder

His number is squarely a fiber-optic FPV, roughly 4 to 5 times the price of an ordinary radio FPV. Not a bomber, not a loitering munition, not a cheap analog quad.

Regular radio FPV (analog, commodity)
the workhorse, produced by the hundred-thousand
~15,000 UAH
~$400
Fiber FPV, 10 km coil (complete)
Brave1 avg ~42,000 UAH, range 29k to 61k
~42,000 UAH
~$1,000
Fiber FPV, 20 km coil (complete) — his "75,000"
Brave1 Market 77k to 107k UAH (May 2025); 75k sits at the floor
~75,000 UAH
~$1,800
Heavy multirotor bomber (Vampire class)
a different tier entirely, see the 4.5 kg note below
~840,000 UAH
~$20,000

One date nuance: your call was May 2026, and fiber-cable prices spiked in early 2026 (per-km cost jumped from about $4 to $29 as AI data-center demand soaked up glass fiber). So 75,000 UAH in mid-2026 reads as either a shorter or pre-spike-contract fiber unit, or simply a floor price. Either way it only reinforces hryvnia: at 2026 prices, 75,000 USD is more absurd, not less.

02 His three "gradations", mapped to real systems

Dimas named exactly three classes. Each maps cleanly to a known 2025-2026 battlefield system.

Update (his later written answers). Dimas has since named the specific fiber-optic models he runs, all under 4.5 kg payload: Goryn (top digital camera, landing/release reliability issues), Uryi (balanced, good load, unstable in strong winds), Ronni (stronger optics, worse camera), and Beshket ("top of the top"). Note "Uryi" is Dimas's model and is not the catalog "Vyriy" (a separate Vyriy Drone product on Serhii's list). The "plausible models" below were the pre-answer guess; the real makers behind Goryn/Uryi/Ronni still need to be identified from the manufacturer links.

HIGH
Gradation 1 · preferred

Fiber-optic strike FPV

"first of all we use fiber optics"
Most likely classLight-to-medium fiber strike FPV, 7 to 13 inch, 1.5 to 2.2 kg payload, 10 to 20 km spool
Plausible modelsPredator REBOFF series (codified for AFU), BattleBorn, Vyriy, 3DTech, General Cherry 13-inch
Price~75,000 UAH (~$1,800), his stated number
His pain checks outCheap 1310 nm converters lose ~3x more signal; Chinese cable + hard spool winding; spool mass strains batteries. Both complaints are documented.
HIGH
Gradation 2

Radio + digital FPV

"radio with digital models"
What "digital" meansA digital HD video link, not legacy analog. Holds a clean picture to impact and resists jamming better.
Most likely stackExpressLRS (ELRS) control + DJI O3/O4 air unit video (Walksnail Avatar or HDZero as alternates)
RoleHis jam-resistant radio fallback, one step below fiber
PriceHigher than analog FPV; the DJI video module is the cost driver
MED-HIGH
Gradation 3

Starlink / satellite drone

"Starlink, with satellite... cost, it not big"
Most likely classLong-range strike platform carrying a Starlink Mini terminal for jam-immune, beyond-line-of-sight control
Why "cost not big" is rightA Starlink Mini is ~$400 to $500 wholesale, now described as cheaper than fiber for long-range strike. His read validates his credibility.
RangeHundreds of km (the link is to a satellite, not a jammable ground emitter)

And the 4.5 kg payload? A separate, heavier tier.

The under-4.5 kg payload you noted (from your other notes, not this call) is above any of his FPVs (which carry 0.5 to 2.2 kg). It points to a heavy multirotor night bomber, most likely a Vampire (Skyfall) or "Baba Yaga" / R18-class hexa/octocopter. The original R18 carried about 5 kg over ~5 km for 45 minutes, an almost exact match for 4.5 kg. A Vampire runs about $20,000 (840,000 UAH) and carries up to 15 kg.

Alternative reading: it could be a heavy fiber bomber (13 to 18 inch, 3 to 8 kg). Without knowing which platform he meant when he said 4.5 kg, both are live, so this is the one number worth confirming directly.

03 Best-guess profile

His wordsMost probable systemFrame / payload / rangePrice
Fiber-optic (preferred)Light-medium fiber strike FPV (Predator REBOFF / BattleBorn / Vyriy class)7 to 13 in; 1.5 to 2.2 kg; 10 to 20 km spool~75,000 UAH (~$1,800)
Radio with digitalELRS control + DJI O3/O4 digital HD video FPV7 to 10 in; ~1 to 1.5 kg; few km LOS, jam-hardenedmid (DJI module driven)
StarlinkLong-range strike drone with Starlink Mini terminalfixed-wing; hundreds of km BLOSterminal ~$400 to $500
~4.5 kg payloadHeavy multirotor bomber (Vampire / R18 "Baba Yaga")hexa/octocopter; ~4.5 kg of a 5 to 15 kg envelope; 5 to 45 km~$20,000 (Vampire)

What this means for you

  1. Your cost ceiling is ~$1,800, not $75,000. Any AI/IoT add-on must fit inside a roughly $1,800 disposable drone, which realistically means a compute + sensor module in the low hundreds of dollars. This kills any plan built around expensive hardware and reinforces the cheap, narrow wedge from the main report.
  2. His pain points are now precisely located. Fiber-cable quality (cheap converters, Chinese cable, winding defects) and battery quality on a ~$1,800 strike FPV. A computer-vision spool-QC tool or a better-matched battery/power layer maps directly onto a real, named cost line, not a vague complaint.
  3. He passed a credibility test. His "Starlink cost not big" is factually correct (the Mini is genuinely cheap and now beats fiber for long range). A man who casually gets that right is describing his real fleet, not bluffing.
  4. Disposability rules. At ~$1,800 he treats these as semi-expendable. Your value has to survive the loss of the airframe, which favors a reusable module, a ground-side tool, or software, over anything that dies with the drone.

Selected sources