Skimmer (unsplash photo)
“Kyiv needs you and your gliders in these moments of rage!” – This was the wording of a post circulated last week by the Ukrainian army on Facebook. The goal was to “recruit” civilians with skimmers – the four-propeller flying toys sold in almost every electronics store – or people with experience operating them for military assistance, the Associated Press reported over the weekend.
Skimmers are, as mentioned, toys – except that they are toys that can be turned into something else very easily. According to the report, the army asks citizens mainly to use their skimmers to scan areas, identify the movements of the Russian army and report them to the army while handing over the photographs from the cameras built into the devices and landmarks in which they were taken. Some skimmers are equipped not only with standard cameras and GPS used to identify the location where each image was taken, but also special cameras for night vision or even heat signature detection – making them an excellent and available intelligence tool.
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According to the AP, the mobilization of Ukrainian citizens and their skimmers is impressive. The owner of a glider shop and service told the agency that he had donated all 300 gliders made by Chinese giant DJI, the world leader in the field, which he had in stock as part of the war effort. Others come with their own private skimmers, and there are even those who beg their friends and family in neighboring European countries to smuggle more skimmers into Ukraine to bolster the makeshift “Air Force”.
Dennis Sushko, DroneUA skimmer operations manager from Kiev, told the agency: “Why are we doing this? We have no choice – this is our country, our home. We try to use literally anything that can help protect our country, and skimmers are a great tool for real-time information. “Now in Ukraine no one remains indifferent. Everyone is doing what they can.”
True, the Ukrainian Air Force has dedicated attack gliders made in Turkey – but as mentioned, civilian gliders also have a very important use in this war.
However, enlistment in the new Air Force endangers not only the glider in abortion by Russian soldiers who notice it, but also its operator. DJI, and other skimmer manufacturers, have in recent years developed software called AeroScope, which enables other countries and law enforcement agencies to locate skimmer operators. The original purpose was to stop terrorists or irresponsible users who endanger planes and the like by arming explosives in explosives (as Hamas, Hezbollah and other Iranian envoys in the Middle East have already done in recent years) or flying them close to passenger planes at risk for these flights. Both Russia and Ukraine have access to the system, but the company refuses to specify whether they are using it in the current war to locate glider pilots and “stop” them.
The company’s spokesman, Adam Lisberg, argued that war was a scenario that was “never taken into account” – a statement that is outright false, as the system was developed to be used by armies and police to fight terrorists who would use “suicide” drones, as stated.
Sushko, for his part, says there are ways to make it harder for the software to locate the operator, and in giant groups on Facebook about skimmers, Ukrainian citizens share such tips, in order to lower the level of risk to civilian volunteers to help the army with skimmers.
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