Ukraine gadget intercepts Russian drone video feeds
Original: Ukraine’s new pocket-sized gadget turns Russian drones’ cameras against them
Why This Matters
Drone warfare's electronic cat-and-mouse is accelerating faster than any single device can keep up.
Kyiv startup CODE380 has built the D·Vision SDR, a 10-ounce receiver that captures unencrypted live video from Russian drones, letting Ukrainian units see a drone's target before it strikes.
Ukrainian startup CODE380 has developed the D·Vision SDR, a pocket-sized radio receiver that intercepts live camera feeds from Russian drones transmitting unencrypted video over the air. At roughly 10 ounces, it weighs less than half of comparable Ukrainian devices. The gadget lets frontline units watch what an incoming drone's pilot is watching in real time—giving them a window into the drone's intended target before impact. The device also picks up frequencies used by Russia's newer Molniya drones, which switched to new video channels in June. Serhii 'Flash' Beskrestnov, a radio specialist advising Ukraine's president, flagged those new frequencies in a June Facebook post, noting that 'most detectors don't see these frequencies, or see them poorly.' He cautioned against over-reliance on the device, warning that a shift from analog to digital video transmission would render receivers like this one useless. That risk is already materializing: The New York Times reported in August that some Molniya variants are AI-guided using Nvidia chips and emit no signals at all.