FPV drones from 800 kilometres away: Russia tests “Orbita” control system

Russian developers are said to have established control of a drone over a distance of 800 kilometres using a system called “Orbita”. Russia recently published only very limited information on this new control system for FPV drones, i.e. drones flown from a first-person perspective (FPV, first-person view) – and that information breaks the usual norms.

The operator was located in Tula, while the FPV drone itself flew over a training area near Mariupol, the occupied Ukrainian port city.

The very little information available suggests that these were test runs. According to it, the pilot in Tula took over the drone from an operator on site only once it was in flight – possibly an indication that the developers are still struggling with latency problems.

Target in Ukraine, controlled from a Moscow high-rise

A report by RIA Novosti, the Russian state news channel, recently caused both a sensation and a scandal. In it, staff of the Centre for Unmanned Systems and Technologies of the autonomous non-profit organisation “CBST” – АНО „ЦБСТ” for short – together with drone pilots of the Russian “Espanola” brigade steered an Ovod FPV drone from an office in a Moscow high-rise and successfully hit a target in Ukraine.

The sensation lies in the distance: around 1,000 kilometres were bridged, roughly 100 times the “usual” range over which a pilot controls a drone directly.

The scandal: the building has since been identified from images taken out of the window. It is not infrastructure used by the military – rather, it is a civilian office complex in Moscow which houses, among other things, an outpatient clinic and a medical laboratory.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court classifies “utilizing the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render certain points, areas or military forces immune from military operations” as a war crime. Under the laws of war, the building may now be regarded as a legitimate military target. Any attack on it would, however, have to be proportionate; in addition, the civilians would have to be warned in good time so that they have enough time to flee.

How does “Orbita” steer FPV drones over such distances?

How the system called “Orbita” ensures control over such great distances is so far entirely unclear. The name naturally suggests that satellite communication is used.

The Russian video from the training area in Mariupol points to another possibility: no satellite antenna can be seen in it. Instead, a smartphone, a TX12 remote control and possibly a repeater are connected to a notebook via USB. In the second video, too, communication actively runs via mobile phone – and specifically in frontline use!

Prioritised access in the mobile network

Might “Orbita” rely primarily on the mobile network? With a good connection, mobile networks can, for example, also carry video conferences over very long distances in good quality and with low latency.

The decisive factor is the network management of the mobile operators, which divides the available bandwidth into usage classes. Users with the appropriate priority get preferential access with high bandwidth and low latency even when the network is heavily loaded. Other users on the same network lose out and may not get a connection at all.