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  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title>Military Studies: Journal for Strategy, Technology and Defense Sciences</journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <issn pub-type="ppub">3126-3666</issn>
      <issn pub-type="epub">3126-3674</issn>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>SAPCRAA</publisher-name>
        <publisher-loc>Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina</publisher-loc>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">1548</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">https://doi.org/10.65932/military-studies-2025-1-2</article-id>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Effectiveness of 250g-class FPV drones as a precision munition system in urban combat: analysis of operational data from the Ukrainian battlefield 2022–2024</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Akulina</surname>
            <given-names>Olga</given-names>
          </name>
          <contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4513-2556</contrib-id>
        </contrib>
      </contrib-group>
      <pub-date pub-type="epub">
        <day>29</day>
        <month>06</month>
        <year>2025</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>3</volume>
      <issue>1</issue>
      <fpage>23</fpage>
      <lpage>47</lpage>
      <self-uri xlink:href="https://www.sapcraa.com/article-preview/1548"/>
      <abstract>
        <p>This article examines the operational effectiveness of 250-gram-class First-Person View (FPV) drones as a precision munition system in urban and semi-urban combat during the Russo-Ukrainian war, drawing on a structured synthesis of operational data released between February 2022 and December 2024. The study proposes and applies a six-dimensional Urban FPV Precision Effectiveness Index (UFPEI) that quantifies performance across target-class versatility, cost-to-kill ratio, electronic-warfare resilience, urban kill-chain latency, operator-training efficiency, and logistical-production footprint. Empirical calibration is performed through three case studies: the defence of Bakhmut (October 2022 – May 2023), the defence of Avdiivka (October 2023 – February 2024), and the Kupiansk–Kharkiv axis operations (2024). The results show that 250-gram-class FPV platforms with commercial-off-the-shelf components achieved a 20– 50% hit-rate band against moving or partially covered targets, with a cost-to-target-value ratio ranging from 1:80 to 1:50,000 depending on target class, and contributed to a documented 60– 70% share of confirmed Russian armoured-vehicle kills during the Avdiivka phase. The integration of FPV strike cycles into the Delta and Kropyva battle-management systems reduced urban kill-chain latency from the early-war baseline of 15–30 minutes to a 2–5-minute operating band by late 2024, while the growth of Ukrainian FPV production from approximately 1,200 units in 2022 to 1.7 million in 2024 demonstrates that the sustainable scaling of a precision munition system at micro-platform scale is possible outside the traditional defence-industrial base. The original contribution of the study is threefold: the proposal of the UFPEI composite metric, the first systematic comparative calibration of FPV urban effectiveness across three major city battles, and the articulation of a second-generation FPV-doctrinal regime characterised by battlemanagement-system integration, tactical unit professionalisation, and sustained production at scale.</p>
      </abstract>
      <kwd-group kwd-group-type="author">
        <kwd>FPV drones</kwd>
        <kwd>precision munition</kwd>
        <kwd>urban combat</kwd>
        <kwd>Russo-Ukrainian war</kwd>
        <kwd>electronic warfare</kwd>
        <kwd>costeffectiveness</kwd>
        <kwd>drone doctrine</kwd>
      </kwd-group>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
</article>
