THE CRUNCH
Ukrainian drone teams have a new way to watch the drones watching them. Kyiv startup CODE380 has drawn attention for the D·Vision SDR, a pocket-sized receiver that picks up the live camera video many Russian drones transmit over the air without any scrambling, and displays it on a screen. That means a Ukrainian unit can see where an enemy drone is heading and what its pilot is aiming at before it strikes.
The device weighs about 10 ounces, less than half the weight of competing Ukrainian models, one of which runs to a couple of pounds. It also listens on the radio channels Russia's newer Molniya drones began using for video in June, frequencies that Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, a radio specialist advising Ukraine's president, said most detectors miss or see poorly. He warned in a June Facebook post cited by Defense News that over-trusting a detector could prove fatal.
There are limits. And per an August New York Times report, some Molniyas are AI-guided, using Nvidia chips and emitting no signals at all, leaving nothing for a receiver to pick up. Beskrestnov has also cautioned that digital video could one day replace analog, which would blind receivers like this one.