The Ukrainian Defence Ministry has shared video on social media which shows a soldier dismantling a Russian drone. The inside technology came as a surprise as the eye of the drone was found to be an off-the-shelf DSLR camera.
The video was shared by ArmyInform, the information agency of Ukraine's defence ministry.
The two-minute video shows a Ukrainian soldier sitting next to an Orlan drone, which have caused widespread devastation in Ukraine, directing laser-guided artillery rounds with lethal precision. But its innards have been mocked by the Ukrainian soldier.
The Orlan drone, which is being examined in the video, had recently crashed in Ukraine. He picks up the camera part of the drone, which is already kept separately near the drone. The soldier quickly dismantles it and shows a Canon DSLR camera inside that is responsible for capturing the images of the Ukrainian army.
He says that it doesn't look more advanced than the models created by the students.
The soldier is speaking in local language but many Ukrainians have posted versions with English supers. In one of those videos, the soldier is heard saying that Ukraine's western partners said "this can't be modern, deal with it yourself".
The camera is mounted to a board with a hook-and-loop fastener strip (commonly referred to as Velcro).
The soldier further says that the mode of the camera has been frozen with glue so that it “doesn't turn off accidentally” during the flight.
He then moves to the top of the drone where its fuel tank is located. The cap of the fuel tank appears to be made of plastic bottle cap.
Russia has said that these drones "perform tactical-range reconnaissance flights for coordinating heavy armour activity on the ground."
