Ukraine's Massive Drone Attack Was Powered by Open Source Software
Ukraine's Massive Drone Attack Was Powered by Open Source Software
Ukraine used ArduPilot to help it wipe out Russian targets. It wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last.
Ukraine used ArduPilot to help it wipe out Russian targets. It wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last.
Open source software used by hobbyist drones powered an attack that wiped out a third of Russia’s strategic long range bombers on Sunday afternoon, in one of the most daring and technically coordinated attacks in the war.
In broad daylight on Sunday, explosions rocked air bases in Belaya, Olenya, and Ivanovo in Russia, which are hundreds of miles from Ukraine. The Security Services of Ukraine’s (SBU) Operation Spider Web was a coordinated assault on Russian targets it claimed was more than a year in the making, which was carried out using a nearly 20-year-old piece of open source drone autopilot software called ArduPilot.
ArduPilot’s original creators were in awe of the attack. “That's ArduPilot, launched from my basement 18 years ago. Crazy,” Chris Anderson said in a comment on LinkedIn below footage of the attack.
Finally found an open source project I'd be proud to contribute to.
Even when the other side uses it?
JFC. There's at least one in every forum.
Even when the other side uses it?
Sure, if they promise to just blow up empty planes sitting a tarmac.
Guaranteed Russia doesn't go for it tho.
Same, how do I join?
The shelves of your nearest hobby store hold the weapons of the future, with only a minimal cost. And that’s terrifying.
Well, there is the whole payload aspect you need to figure out.
If you have that figured out, the rest is and has always been relatively trivial in comparison.
The trucks in the videos clearly never went through any check of the cargo. Could have had a simple trebuchet design in there and haul some explosives onto the airfield.
Yeah, that's something I feel like is being taken out of context. It's the getting the explosives within range of the planes that was impressive to me. They could have had mortars/rockets/etc. and probably done similar damage at that range.
I'm sure drones increase the success rate, but it wasn't drones that made that operation a success from my understanding.
"That's ArduPilot, launched from my basement 18 years ago. Crazy,” Chris Anderson said...
One hell of an achievement to put in your resume.
Incredible. Watching the evolution of this technology is frightening.
Vietnam first televised, gulf first shown, now Ukraine i can look at the last moments of a conscripted Russian from an office chair. Insane.
Fucking world keeps it interesting. Morbidly.
Despite the name ArduPilot it appears to be based on Raspberry Pi:
https://discuss.ardupilot.org/t/ardupilot-and-blueos-for-companion-computers/134879
The hardware is built on top of this:
https://www.seeedstudio.com/Ochin-Tiny-Carrier-Board-V2-for-Raspberry-Pi-CM4-p-5887.htmlVery impressive project, based on several other open source projects.
It's amazing how you can develop projects of such sophistication both cheap and fast, exclusively based on opensource. 👍😀Imagine the time and cost it would take, if Ukraine had to build this from the bottom!
If it was an American manufacturer, it would probably be a billion dollar project.Edit PS:
Although this seems well documented, this is probably not a beginner project.
But for a team with some previous knowledge of working with similar things, I bet it's relatively easy.It primarily runs on STM32 microcontrollers. Hardware ranges from $200 whoop quads to six figure, professional grade aircraft.
It supports other hardware including more "embedded" systems. I've run it on a RasPi clone and on an F4 Clone
Open source FTW!
An incredible a feat, and this is it’s a pretty terrifying new way to conduct warfare.
Can you imagine if they had to license it? lol
Ohhh sorryyyy. We would LOVE to support your attack which will be unprecedented in modern warfare… if only there wasn’t this tiny little eensy-weensy license ‘issue’. We’ve moved to a subscription for your drone warfare software. Per device. You can save 10% if you subscribe for a year. Early termination fee applies. To cancel you’ll have to call and attempt the phone labyrinth. $19.99/min.
I'm now imagining a scenario in which the democratic nations of the world are in a war against oligarchs with corporate armies, and the corpos losing due to their hardware having licensing issues. Like the corpos are so addicted to fucking people over they can't help but fuck their allies over.
Well drone strike would make quite a fun game too