A rear view camera was found on the enemy ZALA 42 UAV - it's a new method of defense against anti-aircraft FPVs

The image of a downed Russian drone (likely a ZALA 421), as revealed by military radio-technology specialist Sergey "Flash" Beskrestnov, shows a small rear-view camera connected to a custom device with RHCP antennas.

According to Defence-UA, this "innovation" is one of the measures designed to alert operators to threats from Ukrainian anti-aircraft FPV drones.

The enemy quickly implemented this idea, as similar theoretical concepts first appeared in Russian specialized Telegram channels just two weeks ago, and now we are seeing the first instance of such a downed drone.

"It is worth noting that reconnaissance drones are not fighter jets or aerobatic planes, so they cannot perform high aerobatic maneuvers. Therefore, one of the countermeasures could be to attempt to gain speed. The reason is that the flight time of an FPV drone is quite limited, and higher speeds will drain the anti-aircraft drone's battery more quickly," the article states.

Whether there is practical benefit to this solution remains uncertain, but the speed with which the enemy adopted the idea is noteworthy. Experts suggest that the list of countermeasures will likely expand further, and it's possible that miniature electronic warfare equipment could be mounted on drones.