[EXCLUSIVE] 🇩🇪🇺🇦A German AI-enabled drone is now flying combat missions over Ukraine.
But on the morning Army Media visited its operators, the HX-2 wasn’t going anywhere.
The fog was so dense that visibility dropped below 100 metres. The crew of Ukraine’s 59th Separate Assault Brigade waited underground, watching reconnaissance feeds and searching for Russian targets.
When the sky is clear, the routine begin.
Check the controls. Inspect the propellers. Clean the camera. Run the pre-flight procedure. Launch.
On busy days, the team prepares and flies five or six HX-2s almost nonstop, striking Russian artillery, tanks and self-propelled guns to support Ukrainian infantry.
The German-made system developed by Helsing carries a 2.5 kg warhead and can reach targets roughly 60–70 kilometres away.
Its AI assists with target identification and terminal guidance—but the human operator remains central.
“The navigator has to find the target, see it and lock onto it. After that, the AI takes over,” one operator explains.
That distinction matters.
This isn’t a machine independently deciding whom to attack. It is technology helping Ukrainian soldiers reach military targets more accurately, from farther away, while reducing the risks faced by their own troops.
Yet perhaps the most human moment in the video has nothing to do with specifications.
One operator recalls losing control of a drone while the video feed remained active. The failsafe system carried it above the clouds.
For a moment, in the middle of a combat mission, all he could see was the sky.
“You look at all that beauty and think: damn, it really is beautiful.”
German engineering. Ukrainian battlefield experience. And soldiers adapting both to a war that changes almost every day.
👇The full video—with English and German voiceovers—is linked in the comments.
Source: Army Media, July 29, 2026
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