File image.
The Russian Africa Corps has begun using fiber-optic-guided first-person view (FPV) suicide quadcopters to better support the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) in its fight against the separatist Tuareg Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM).
The two groups launched a large-scale offensive across the Sahel country on April 25, and managed to make some notable gains. Since then, the FAMa has been working to push back the militants, with direct support from Russia’s Africa Corps.
The first documented use of fiber-optic-guided FPV suicide quadcopters by the Africa Corps came on June 4, when the corps released video footage showing a strike with one such drone against a fuel depot used by militants close the capital of the Tombouctou region in northern Mali.
Later on June 17, another video was released showing an additional drone strike on a group of militants moving on motorcycles, also near Tombouctou.
Three more videos showing drone strikes came out on June 24. According to the Africa Corps, the strikes hit a pickup truck used by the militants and a nearby fuel depot in the town of Ndukala in the region of Ségou, which is located in central Mali.
Most of the militants active in Ndukala are from JNIM, while Ndukala is generally considered within the FLA’s area of influence.
Fiber-optic guidance is not just completely immune to jamming, but also offers much better video feed, allowing drone pilots to execute more precision strikes.
Russia significantly boosted the capabilities of the Africa Corps in the wake of the April offensive to enable it to better support the FAMa. In addition to fiber-optic-guided FPV suicide drones, the corps has been documenting using Lancet loitering munitions and Garpiya-1As one-way attack drones in recent weeks.
The situation in Mali has now stabilized. In coming months, the FAMa and the Africa Corps could launch a counteroffensive to push back both the FLA and JNIM, which are still holding up to several areas close to the capital, Bamako, in the northeast and elsewhere in the country.
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