Russian police are investigating the first ever homicide case in which the murder weapon was an FPV drone. If anyone needed reminding, such drones are easy to make and even easier to acquire, and are now made in Russian in large numbers.
‘Blowback’ is the technical term for the backward escape of gases from a firearm. It has long been used as a metaphor for the unintended consequences of military or covert action. It may be an apt description for what has happened with the rapid development and democratization of explosive-laden racing drones in Russia. Russia’s notorious organized crime gangs may now have the perfect weapon for carrying out hits on each other — and anyone else who gets in their way.
Murder By Remote Control
The outline of the story is carried by Russian media including news outlet Kompromat1 who reported on Feb 8th :
“At the beginning of the year, an murder attempt was made on a large farmer in one of the Trans-Baikal regions. The businessman died on the spot from his injuries. The weapon of the crime was an FPV drone with explosives,” [English by Google translate] states the article.
The killing is described as “a new milestone in the history of Russian crime. For the first time, criminals used an FPV attack drone.”
No further details are given of the case or the victim who is also described as a “business competitor.”
Russian law enforcement note the difficulty of investigating a crime when the murderer could have been some distance away. In Ukraine FPV strikes are routinely carried out at ranges of up to 12 miles. The drone may have been positioned days in advance and activated when needed, a tactic increasingly used in Ukraine.
Kompromat1 quotes a police official: “The situation is complicated by the fact that the drone is controlled remotely. However, to control such a UAV, certain skills. We will check all veterans of the “SVO” [‘Special military operation’ – the invasion of Ukraine ]
who have the necessary combat experience and live or could be in the nearest areas at the time of the assassination attempt.”
They also mention the possibility of a law enforcement register of all veterans with drone operation experience. This seems far-fetched given the numbers involved. These days, along with basic firearms skills, Russian schoolchildren are now being taught how to use drones in combat. The suspect pool is everyone, everyone has access to the murder weapon, and anyone in a ten-mile radius could have done it.
Mexico’s Cartel Drones
Criminals have been using drones for some years, in particular for smuggling. Nobody knows just how many narcodrones are coming over the Mexican border, but they offer a relatively low-cost and risk-free means of getting drugs into the U.S. In prisons, drones are a major route for contraband; U.K., officials recently warned that prison drones are ‘a threat to national security’ with prisoners smashing widows and making holes in anti-drone netting faster than they can be repaired. Their next worry is that larger drones will be used for an escape.
Criminals are also aware of the weapons potential of drones. Robert Bunker of C/O Futures LLC has been documenting cartel use of weaponized drones for some years. As previously noted here, various groups, in particular the CJNG, have been using improvised one-way attack drones for some years both in gang wars and to target government officials. Such drones may ‘send a message’ rather than killing. Because they can travel past armed guards, over walls and security fences, an explosive drone can arrive literally on the target’s doorstep — or in their tennis court, golf course or swimming pool – and demonstrate just how vulnerable they are.
The Russian drones are somewhat different. Rather than improvised devices operated by casual users, these are purpose-built killing machines with designs honed by two years of development in Ukraine, and likely operated by pilots with hundreds of hours of military training. And, as they only cost a few hundred dollars each and are easily mass-produced in a garage workshop, they are likely to turn up in large numbers.
Russian Drones, Russian Targets
Transbaikal is in Russia’s Far East, three thousand miles from Moscow and even further from the war zone. But the lethal FPV may not have travelled very far. There are a huge number of small-scale FPV producers in Russia, but one obvious candidate.
A local news report described how official Yuri Trutnev, ‘plenipotentiary of the President of Russia in the Far East’ met with volunteers from the district in Kursk. Trutnev brought a number of gifts including a shipment of “FPV drones developed by Transbaikalians” which are also described as “Trans-Baikal FPV drones.”
These look like products from the region’s Veter company, which reportedly has two production facilities in the region and makes up to 3,000 FPVs a month.
Of course a different type may have been imported, or the killers may have assembled an FPV themselves from components off the internet. This takes just a few hours with nothing more than a soldering iron and a screwdriver.
The most difficult part to source is the explosive warhead. However, given that Russian gangs have been using car bombs since the 1990s, getting hold of illegal explosives may not be as difficult as in other countries.
This is bad news for one person in particular: Vladimir Putin. Famously paranoid about assassination attempts, Putin ‘has a bubble of spoofed GPS signals projected around him when he visits sensitive locations,’ according to a 2019 BBC report. This is likely a protection against drones.
However, many Russian FPVs now use fiber-optic communications making them immune to jamming. How ironic would it be if Putin were killed by a drone using Russian technology developed to fight a war which he started?
