UAV Initiative · Intel Update
May 29 Intel: Dimas, Serhii & Illia
New intelligence from four WhatsApp threads (text + 6 voice notes), folded into the project wiki. The headline: hard specs from Dimas, Serhii's unit and strategic steer, and Illia's fiber-import opening, with one important counter-signal.
Date 2026-05-29
Sources 4 chats, 6 voice notes (Whisper)
Contacts Dimas, Serhii, Illia, Sayed
What this is
The intelligence digest from the May-29 WhatsApp drop. Everything here is now in the wiki (entity pages, summaries, decisions log, strategy).
Picture this: you land in Dnipro next week to meet Dimas. You arrive already knowing his exact envelope (10-30 km, 1.5-4.5 kg), which models he rates, that anti-drone is his hot button, and that Illia will hand you radio units to give him on the spot. This page is that prep, in one place.
Bottom line
- Dimas gave hard specs: fiber drones fly 10-30 km, payload 1.5-4.5 kg; cable failure = lose signal + control, drone gone. Anti-drone is now critical (he rates DROZD + General Chereshnya).
- Serhii's unit identified: the 419th Separate UAV Battalion. The relationship is donation-first. His steer: fiber is fading, the momentum is retranslator drones, wing recon+relay, and middle/deep-strike (Starlink).
- Illia opened a side-business: good fiber is unavailable locally (last quote $34/km, all from China), and he can find buyers if you import G.657.A2 spools. He will also hand you radio drones at Dnipro to test.
- The tension to resolve: Illia says import fiber; Serhii says fiber demand is dropping. Validate demand on the 19k Telegram parts market before committing a container.
01 What's new, by contact
Dimas
Front-line brigade · beachhead buyer
- Specs: fiber 10-30 km; payload 1.5-4.5 kg.
- Failure: cable reliability is maker/batch-dependent; when it snaps, signal + control lost, drone disappears.
- Model notes: Beshket "top of the top"; Uryi balanced (good load) but weak in strong wind; Goryn (top digital cam, landing unreliable) / Ronni (stronger optics, worse cam). All fiber-optic, under 4.5 kg.
- Price anchor: fiber FPV ~75,000 UAH (~$1,800-2,000, NOT $75k USD); Starlink/satellite drones cost more.
- Anti-drone: "very relevant now" - best are DROZD and General Chereshnya.
- Logistics: Dnipro meet next week; will receive radio drones to test; base IF.
Serhii
419th Separate UAV Battalion · donation + intel
- Unit: 419th Separate UAV Battalion; email smirnovsergii@gmail.com; tactical level (~30 km).
- Framing: drone donation first, then production (Sayed intro).
- Fiber: fading - too costly, kept for high-value targets only.
- Where it's going: retranslator drones; wing recon+relay loitering 1-2 km up; long-loiter multi-camera FPV; middle/deep-strike (Starlink/mesh, 150-300 km).
- Models: fiber - Vyriy, Gromylo, Beshket; radio - Gen Chereshnya, F10, Rarog, Vyriy, Shrike, Kalibri.
Illia
Ukrainian manufacturer (SkyPulse) · partner
- Fiber crisis: none available; last local offer $34/km (May 6); ~all from China/Asia.
- Shift: now focused on radio products, like most makers.
- Import offer: can find buyers for imported G.657.A2 / Jinxingtong spools; good makers ship ~40 days post-payment.
- Channel: 19k-member Telegram parts market to test an offer; he can find buyers for a 500-box container of 20/30 km spools.
- Anti-jam: his flight controller runs 3 channels at once + rare/uncommon channels (auto-reconnect) - but the commander is skeptical channel-hopping beats current jamming.
- Pricing: copter ~$1,000-2,000; deep/middle-strike plane-type ~$100,000/unit ($120k for an alt config), out of scope. SkyPulse + Kamik on DOT-Chain, "absolutely competitive" (note: neither sent PDF contains a price).
Consolidated spec envelope
Dimas + Serhii combined
- Frame: mostly 10/13 inch fiber FPV.
- Range: 10-30 km (Dimas); 15-20 km zone / 25-30 km deep recon (Serhii).
- Payload: 1.5-4.5 kg.
- Night: heavy bombers ("Baba Yaga"), rarely FPV.
- Real failure mode: the fiber tether snaps the longer it flies - the core reliability problem.
02 The fiber-import question (Illia vs Serhii)
The single decision this drop surfaces. Both views are first-hand.
The opening (Illia)
Good fiber is unavailable in Ukraine; the last local quote was $34/km (May 6) and nearly all of it comes from China. If you import G.657.A2 / Jinxingtong spools (Brazil or anywhere), Illia "can find buyers" and you test demand on a 19k-member Telegram market. This is the origin of the Brazil fiber-sourcing report.
The counter-signal (Serhii)
Fiber demand is fading: still good, but now too costly and cost-inefficient, so it is reserved for high-value targets while the front shifts to radio, retranslators and deep-strike. So the import play is a timing bet - real supply gap vs. softening demand. Post a spec + price to the Telegram market and gauge reaction before committing a container.
03 Where the front is moving (Serhii's steer)
| Direction | What it is | Read |
|---|
| Retranslator drones | FPVs flown via airborne relays for range at the tactical (~30 km) level | Efficient now; the practical workhorse |
| Wing recon + relay | Fixed-wing loitering 1-2 km over the enemy: finds targets AND relays to FPVs | "Really good efficiency" - strong fit for an AI/IoT + optics play |
| Long-loiter multi-camera FPV | Big battery, 2-3 cams (rear + front night), landing legs, standby mode | A concrete product spec he handed you |
| Middle / deep-strike | Wing drones 150-300 km, Starlink + mesh | The current game-changer, but gated by Starlink access; outside his tactical remit |
| Anti-drone (counter-UAS) | DROZD, General Chereshnya | "Very relevant now"; adjacent market to scope |
04 What to do with it
Next moves
1. Dnipro trip: meet Dimas next week; collect Illia's radio drones to hand over for live field testing - cheapest possible validation.
2. Fiber import: do not commit a container yet. Post a G.657.A2 spec + landed price to the 19k Telegram market; if reception is strong, the Brazil/China sourcing math in the fiber report is ready.
3. Re-weight the product idea: Serhii's steer points away from commodity FPV/pure fiber toward relay + recon-wing + long-loiter multi-camera drones, which fit Rafael's AI/IoT/optics strengths better. Worth a concept sketch with AJ.
4. Anti-drone: scope it as a Phase-4 adjacency; the Saturday (~2026-05-30/31) Krakow meeting with the anti-drone professor/company feeds this.
Questions to ask before / in Dnipro
Dimas: which fiber cable brand/spec and battery brand/spec do you use now (to benchmark the upgrade)? Do your drones have night-vision/thermal and operate at night (asked 2026-05-25, still unanswered)? Are VTOL drones useful? Manufacturer websites for Goryn/Uryi/Ronni/Beshket? Exact Starlink-drone price? At what distance does cable quality start to fail (it is manufacturer-dependent)?
Serhii: tactical retranslator-class vs middle-strike, which fits the 419th? What payload (kg) between 4 and 10 for the heavier standby drone? Confirm the fiber payload requirement in kg.
Illia: the 3-channel / rare-channel controller spec sheet (so Dimas can react); fiber terms (good makers ship ~40 days after payment; his last local quote was $34/km on 2026-05-06); who funds working capital given gov net-30/60.
Still pending from Dimas: written answers on night-vision/thermal camera, night operation, VTOL usefulness, and the manufacturer websites/specifics for his named models, requested but not yet delivered.
Provenance. Text from the four WhatsApp exports; the 6 voice notes were machine-transcribed (Groq Whisper, translated to English) so wording may be imperfect. Drone-model spellings (Goryn, "Ronni") are transcription-tentative - cross-check the
Brave1 catalog. The two PDFs in "UAV Production II" are the SkyPulse spec sheet and Kamik deck already on file.