Thermite-Spewing ‘Dragon’ Drones Are Ukraine’s Newest Battlefield Innovation

Ukraine’s employment of so-called Dragon drones capable of spewing the incendiary compound thermite on Russian positions appears to be rapidly gaining momentum as more units are releasing videos of them in action.

Primarily used in grenades and artillery shells, among other applications, thermite is a combination of oxidized iron and aluminum that burns at about 4,440 degrees Fahrenheit. The drones attack by dispersing the compound over tree-lines and other foliage under which Russians seek cover, as well as into trenches. Burning growth away reduces where the enemy can hide, increasing their exposure, and deploying it where troops are hiding, including into trenches, can kill anything exposed inside and can choke off oxygen to and burn those not directly in contact with it.

It’s a terrifying substance to say the least.

The 60th Mechanized Brigade released a video montage on Wednesday showing a drone recording another fire-bombing drone covering a Russian position along a treeline with burning thermite.

“Strike Drones are our wings of vengeance, bringing fire straight from the sky!” the brigade wrote on its Facebook page. “They become a real threat to the enemy, burning his positions with an accuracy that no other weapon can achieve.”

The unit then made a reference to Vidar, the Norse God of Vengeance.

“When our ‘Vidar’ works – orcs will never sleep again,” the brigade wrote, using the disparaging Ukrainian term for Russian invaders that is based on the evil foot soldiers from the J.R.R. Tolkien’s famed works.

The 116th Khorne Group, another Ukrainian military unit, released a video of one of its thermite-dropping drones flying over a wooded area. The unit groused about the recent appearance of these videos on social media.

“We are against anyone sharing new technologies to destroy the enemy in a video on the Internet,” Khorne Group complained on Telegram. “But it’s already been done, so we’re sharing our video where orcs are incinerated with thermite ammunition.”

The 22-second video shows the drone, resembling a comet with a smoky tail, torching a Russian position. With plumes of smoke in the background, it appears this was one of perhaps several such weapons Khorne Group deployed in this area.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (MoD) confirmed the use of these drones,

As we reported yesterday, the first video of one in action emerged on social media Monday. Another appeared on Tuesday.

This new drone weapon application differs from those in the past as it provides wide-area effects in a way no other can, while also doing so with incredible precision and no risk to the operator. One drone can do immense damage on a thermite spewing run, compared to far more limited effects usually associated with small weaponized drones. The psychological angle to this weapon is also substantial.

While far more limited in potential battlefield effects, the Russians too appear to be tinkering with using thermite-dropping drones. A video posted by the Ukrainian Landmines and Coffee Telegram channel purports to show one such effort. It uses “ignition elements from a 120 mm mortar mine,” Landminds and Coffee said. The mortar shells contain thermite.

The 62-second video appeared to show a demonstration of the technology. The drone hovered a few feet off the ground, emitting a torrent of fire and dropping likely thermite-containing submunitions. They created a small fire when hitting the ground. The video ended with the drone rising higher before crashing in flames.

The use of thermite in this war is not new. In May 2022, video emerged on social media appearing to show that Russia may have used artillery shells containing a thermite mixture to bombard Mariupol. A few months later, another video purported to show the Donetsk city of Marinka being struck with thermite-filled artillery shells. In both cases, the fiery cloud fell from the sky indiscriminately burning a wide area. You can see the Marinka attack in the video below.

Thermite has also been used in grenades dropped by drones. Videos from the time show that they were employed largely as a method of finishing off damaged vehicles and other equipment.

Steel Hornets, a Kyiv-based drone weapons maker, started promoting them online.

“Recently, there have been many questions about incendiary ammunition,” Steel Hornets said on Telegram in April. “It is necessary to understand that this is not a thermobar, it does not explode, but burns. It is designed to be dropped from a drone from a height of up to 30 m.”

The munitions were designed to begin burning in flight once initiated.

“If it hits a place where there is no reason to burn – then it will not set fire to anything,” Steel Hornets wrote. “The higher the drop height, the greater the probability of a bounce from the site of impact. When burning on inclined surfaces – the molten metal will flow and burning will be worse.”

The munitions could also be used with kamikaze drones, Steel Hornets noted at the time. You can see this type of munition being dropped by the Ukrainian Birds of Magyar unit in the following video from February.

The use of thermite as a weapon isn’t specifically banned under the Geneva Convention.

“The Protocol on prohibitions or restrictions on the use of incendiary weapons (Protocol III) aims at protecting civilians and civilian objects from the use of this type of weapons. It prohibits targeting civilians and restricts targeting military objects located within populated areas. The Protocol also prohibits the use of incendiary weapons on forest or other plants unless the vegetation is used to conceal military objects.”

Human Rights Watch decried those exceptions as “loopholes” in the Geneva Convention.

“Incendiary weapons contain different chemical compounds, such as napalm or thermite, that ignite and cause significant human suffering at the time of attack and in the weeks, months, and even years that follow,” the organization stated.

It is unclear when the concept of using drones to disperse torrents of thermite was developed or when it was first fielded. However, from the complaints made by the Khorne Group about exposing it online, it seems like they have been around for at least a little while and that the initial video opened up the floodgates.

More such videos are likely to emerge in the coming days. It’s yet another iterative step in a conflict that has become a field lab of sorts for weapons development, and especially those related to uncrewed technologies.

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