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What we're looking at here is a Hornet mid-range drone being test fired on a US military base in Germany. Even though this drone is an American design, it is currently being used by the Ukrainian army to carry out strikes on the Russians. These attacks are making such a mess of Putin's army that analysts believe they are turning the tide of the entire war in Kyiv's favor. Which begs the question, how do these drones work and why are they so effective? We're going to break down exactly how they're put together and study the tapes to find out. This is the Hornet, a mid-range strike drone that's now in use on the front lines of Ukraine. The facts and figures are as follows. Each drone is around 5 and 1/2 ft long and has a
wingspan of around 7 ft. It weighs around 30 lb, of which approximately 9 lb is taken up by the warhead. It has a cruising speed estimated between 60 and 75 mph, though it flies faster during an attack. And it is thought to cost somewhere around $5,000 for a single drone. But the most important statistic of all is its range, up to 200 mi. We'll find out why that's so important in just a moment. But first, let's take a detailed tour. Starting at the back, we find an electric motor attached to a simple pusher propeller. This helps make the drone stealthy because electric motors are way quieter than the two-stroke petrol engines that are typically used
in these kind of drones. The motor spins the propeller, which is what pushes the drone through the air. In front of that, we have three plastic tail fins. These are stabilizers, one vertical stabilizer and two horizontal. They keep the drone steady while in the air, but they also have flaps on their trailing edge, which are used for steering. The one on the back of the vertical stabilizer is called the rudder. This is for turning the plane left and right, which pilots refer to as yaw. The horizontal ones are called elevators. They tilt the drone up and down so it can increase or decrease altitude. That's called pitch.
Just in front of the stabilizers is a mount. This can be used to attach a Starlink antenna, the satellite system owned by Elon Musk. This allows a pilot to stay in contact with the drone over very long distances and is very hard to jam, though is optional. The drone has other means of communication, as we'll see in a moment. In front of that is the Hornet's main body, which is made of a kind of Styrofoam. It looks a lot like the stuff you get inside parcels, but is way more resistant to damage. This keeps the drone light and makes it cheap to manufacture, but also increases its stealth capabilities because Styrofoam is nearly invisible to radar. Sitting on top of the body are the wings, also made of the same kind of
Styrofoam. Just like the rear stabilizers, they have flaps on their trailing edge. These are called ailerons and they control the roll of the drone. Both the wings and the top of the drone's body lift off, revealing the components inside. We're guessing a little bit here, but from what we've seen, it looks as if there's a battery at the back which powers the electric motor and gives the drone its all-important range. In front of that is the warhead, a high fragmentation explosive designed to shred targets on impact. Then, there's this drone's other secret weapon, a computer processor which powers the Hornet's brain, an
artificial intelligence. We'll discuss that more in just a second. We also think this part of the drone contains additional communication equipment that the drone uses to stay in touch with its pilots. This is likely LTE or mobile internet signal. By hijacking local Russian networks, it can stay in contact even in enemy airspace. Last but not least, we come to the nose of the drone. Inside this tiny window is a camera. That's how the drone's artificial brain knows where it is and what it's looking at. There is also this thin tube called a pitot. This measures air speed and is crucial for keeping the drone airborne.
Put all that together and we can have a reasonable guess as to how a Hornet drone works. First, the drone is assembled and mounted on a rail. This uses compressed air to launch the drone into the air where the engine takes over. Then, the drone is either flown to the attack area by a pilot or uses its AI brain to pilot itself there. Once in the attack area, it begins scanning for targets. Using hundreds of hours of drone attack footage to help spot things like Russian trucks, trains, and ammo warehouses. When it has found something, the drone locks on and tells its pilot that it's found a target. Once the pilot has given the go-ahead, the drone dive-bombs into the target or the pilot manually steers it where it
needs to go. The impact causes the warhead to detonate, destroying the drone and hopefully the target along with it. If we go back to the tapes, then I can show you everything I was just talking about for real. Here's footage of US troops training with the Hornet on a firing range in Germany. At the back, you can see the electric motor I was talking about along with the propeller. You can also see the rear stabilizers and the flaps attached to each of them. On the wings, you can see additional flaps on the trailing edge. In the nose, you can see the camera and the pitot tube. Here, these troops are assembling the launch rail. There's a flat surface on top which the drone sits on and a tube underneath, which the
compressed air is fired through to launch the drone. These two arms coming out to either side of the rail are to support the drone's wings. The air is released, and the drone is catapulted into the sky. If we swap tapes for just a second, then we can see what the drone sees during an attack. This is no longer training footage. This is battle footage taken from Ukraine. The city you can see is Donetsk, around 35 mi behind the front line. Around the edge of the main camera view is a bunch of location data that's been blurred out for security reasons. And up here is a little inset view where the onboard AI
is cycling through objects that it thinks might be targets. These little boxes frame likely targets with a description of what the drone thinks they are. In this case, it's mostly vehicles, transports, fuel trucks, and other supply vehicles. Once the target is positively identified, the drone dives into it and explodes. Here's what that looks like from the Russian point of view. Target destroyed. All of that seems just fine. The Ukrainians had a new, stealthy, intelligent drone with which to hit the Russians. But is this really a war-changing weapon? I mean, at first glance, it seems just like a refined version of weapons they already have.
Not so fast, however, because this drone plugs a very important gap in Ukraine's arsenal. Right now, Kyiv's army is using drones to fight three separate campaigns. The first is a close-range fight. This is where, arguably, Ukraine's most famous drones do the dirty work, the FPVs. Their job is to hunt down Russian troops and tanks on the battlefield and use their pinpoint accuracy to destroy as many of them as they can. They've proved hugely effective at doing this, to the point where Russia is now thought to be losing more troops per month than it can recruit. Next, there's the long-range strike campaign. This ignores the battlefield completely and fires drones over Russia's army and into Russia
itself. These drones target things like oil refineries, weapons factories, and key logistics hubs. The aim is to deprive Putin of both the money and material that he needs to fight his war. And just like the FPVs on the front line, Ukraine is meeting with great success here. In early 2026, the Tuapse refinery, one of Russia's largest, was so badly damaged by these attacks that it started raining black from the skies. But until now, Ukraine didn't really have a weapon that could hit things between the long-range and the short-range. Things that were still on the battlefield but not on the front line. Supply convoys, fuel and ammo dumps, command posts, and so on. Things that absolutely vital to the functioning
of Russia's army but are beyond the ranges of its FPVs. That's where the Hornet comes in. The company which makes it, Perennial Autonomy, is the brainchild of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and it is used by Ukraine for its middle strike campaign. Beginning in January 2026 but ramping up significantly through April and May, Ukrainian analysts have geolocated at least 1,000 strikes using the Hornet and other similar drones. At the time of this recording, in June of 2026, they are locating at least 100 every week. And those same analysts believe that for every video they can locate, there are two they cannot, meaning at least 300 strikes are taking place each week. The majority of those attacks have been on warehouses or trucks like
those we just saw. But they've also hit grounded aircraft, Russian air defenses, and radar positions. Even trains have come under attack. For the time being at least, Russia seems to have few countermeasures available to stop them. Rubicon, an elite Russian drone unit, is using interceptors to take some of the Hornets down and have been publishing videos of those strikes. Here, you can actually see a few of the Hornets with Starlink terminals mounted at the rear of the body like we talked about earlier. But this is nowhere near enough. 1,000 successful strikes in 5 months tells you that Rubicon's defenses are overwhelmed. All of which adds up to a giant problem for Russia. The last time
Ukraine had access to a weapon like the Hornet was back in 2022 when America donated 16 of its HIMARS systems. The GMLRS rockets they were given actually have a shorter range than the drones. 45 miles versus 200 miles. And obviously, rockets work very differently to drones. But the intent behind both weapons is the same, to allow an army to strike its opponent in the rear. Ayming for its logistics rather than its front line troops. And HIMARS proved extremely effective. At the time, Russia's army was rolling across the Donbas using overwhelming artillery barrages to pummel Ukraine into submission. Being able to hit the ammo stockpiles those artillery guns relied upon meant those advances slowed,
stopped, and then went dramatically into reverse. But over time, HIMARS became less effective. Russia found ways to jam the GPS guidance the rockets use, sending them off target. Russian forces also began to adapt their tactics, moving ammo dumps further from the front and out of range of the missiles. There have also been supply issues. GMLRS rockets are expensive and take time to make. Stockpiles are low and America under President Trump has dramatically cut supplies. That's why Ukraine felt it necessary to develop a weapon like the Hornet. And the Hornet is having a very similar effect to HIMARS. In late 2025, Russia was gaining territory at its fastest rate since the beginning of the
war. No longer able to rely on massed artillery barrages, it was instead using its own medium-range drones, glide bombs, and infiltrator troops. First, glide bombs and medium-range drones were used to pummel Ukrainian logistics just behind the front lines, cutting off troops at the front from resupply or reinforcement. Then, under the cover of fog or high winds, which make Ukraine's own drones less effective, units of two to four Russian soldiers were sent forward. Their job was to sneak between Ukrainian dugouts and into the rear, where they then dug in. More troops were then sent after them until enough men had built up behind the Ukrainian lines for an attack.
Pokrovsk, a key defensive town in the Donetsk region, fell to the Russians in late January 2026 amid heavy use of this tactic. It was feared that Kostiantynivka, another key city in Ukraine's fortress belt, a string of defenses in the east, was next. Russia began a fresh offensive in March with this city as its prime target. But, rather than advance, Russia's gains instead slowed down, then stopped, and have since gone into reverse. Exactly the same pattern we saw with HIMARS 4 years ago. The campaign Ukraine is waging has focused on cutting the supply roads that Russia uses to fuel its attacks.
One highway, which the Russians call R280, runs from Rostov-on-Don, its main logistics hub inside Russia for men and material heading to the front line, all the way through Mariupol and Melitopol and into occupied Crimea. Another, the T0509, runs from Mariupol to Donetsk. And a third, the M30, runs from Donetsk to the cities we were just talking about, Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka. Ukrainian strikes have focused heavily on attacking trucks that are moving men, fuel, and ammo along these highways. Now, rather than Ukrainian units being isolated from reinforcements and resupply, it is Russian units who are isolated.
Dozens of videos show convoys of wrecked Russian vehicles lining highways in the south of Ukraine with Russian soldiers complaining that roads have become virtually impassable. That makes attacking very difficult. Troops without ammo and fuel can't move forward and it is opening up the Russians to counterattacks. February was the first month where Ukraine gained more territory than it lost since late 2023. It repeated that feat in April and again in May. The trend is also accelerating. In May, Ukraine's top commander said his forces carried out more attacks than the Russians did. Not bad for a military that has only a fraction of the manpower. In fact, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, who follow this conflict extremely closely,
believe Ukraine just regained the initiative in this war for the first time since the Kursk offensive in 2024. They believe Kyiv's troops are in a position to take the fight to Russia rather than simply holding the Russians back. of caution, though. Those same experts also warn that Ukraine's advantage is time-limited. Russia is unable to counter drones like the Hornet right now, but that will almost certainly not last forever. We know that drone warfare adapts at a staggeringly fast pace and Russia already has interceptor drone technology. What it lacks is the quantity of drones required to stop all these Ukrainian attacks from getting through. Russia's war bloggers think it could take them between 6 and 12 months to solve that problem. So, Ukraine has
at least until the end of 2026 and perhaps until early 2027 to take advantage of its new position. If it can do that, rather than a Russian summer offensive, it could become a Ukrainian offensive instead, the first in almost 3 years. For the first time in a long time, optimism is building within the Ukrainian ranks and drones like the Hornet are the reason why. Hi everyone. Thanks for watching. If you like this kind of content and want to see more in your feed, don't forget to hit like and subscribe and check out the videos on our channel for more analysis of the Ukraine war.
