this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
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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.

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[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 133 points 3 days ago (36 children)

Finally found an open source project I'd be proud to contribute to.

[–] Emergency3030@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Same, how do I join?

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[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 42 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The shelves of your nearest hobby store hold the weapons of the future, with only a minimal cost. And that’s terrifying.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

~~terrifying~~ empowering

ftfy

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 35 points 3 days ago (7 children)

No, definitely terrifying. War should be costly and terrible. That’s the only reason it isn’t more common, that its cost is objectionable. Pax economica, while flawed, is more subjective than ever before. And I do not like that.

[–] AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

War is costly and terrible, and it always will be, regardless of the magnitude of resources required to wage war.

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War should be costly and terrible

and it still is and it will be

that's the point, more often that not, to take money and burn it while producing more fuel for propaganda

not saying that's whats happening in Ukraine, but this has happened a ton in the past and will continue

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[–] Saleh@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

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.

[–] ansiz@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The cargo area had a false ceiling didn't it? Like I saw one that looked like you could open the back of the 'trailer' but there was a fake ceiling with the drones above that.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago

Afaik they had fake ceilings yeah. However noone that would bother to look, would be tricked by fake ceilings. That trick exists since horse carriages. The fake ceilings only give the driver some deniability.

[–] ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee 10 points 2 days ago

Open source FTW!

[–] b3an@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

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.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

An incredible a feat, and this is it’s a pretty terrifying new way to conduct warfare.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 30 points 3 days ago

"That's ArduPilot, launched from my basement 18 years ago. Crazy,” Chris Anderson said...

One hell of an achievement to put in your resume.

[–] TwoBeeSan@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

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.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

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.html

Very 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.

[–] TunaLobster@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

It primarily runs on STM32 microcontrollers. Hardware ranges from $200 whoop quads to six figure, professional grade aircraft.

[–] KeenFlame@feddit.nu 3 points 3 days ago

That's wild, I was just reading about blueos for a project and that's what they used? These kids are so fucking impressive

[–] brisk@aussie.zone 3 points 3 days ago

It supports other hardware including more "embedded" systems. I've run it on a RasPi clone and on an F4 Clone

[–] altphoto 10 points 3 days ago

We need more. We should all keep the effective strategies quiet and secret. That way they can be used again and again.

[–] RaptorBenn@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Yeah, I doubt there's many commercial options for drone swarm plane destruction. Who is this for?

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Well drone strike would make quite a fun game too

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