News: 0177909023

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Ukraine's Massive Drone Attack Was Powered by Open Source Software

(Tuesday June 03, 2025 @11:20AM (msmash) from the closer-look dept.)


An anonymous reader [1]shares a report :

> 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. On X, he tagged his the co-creators Jordi Munoz and Jason Short in a post about the attack. "Not in a million years would I have predicted this outcome. I just wanted to make flying robots," Short said in a reply to Anderson. "Ardupilot powered drones just took out half the Russian strategic bomber fleet."

>

> ArduPilot is an open source software system that takes its name from the Arduino hardware systems it was originally designed to work with. It began in 2007 when Anderson launched the website DIYdrones.com and cobbled together a UAV autopilot system out of a Lego Mindstorms set.



[1] https://www.404media.co/ukraines-massive-drone-attack-was-powered-by-open-source-software/



Good. (Score:1)

by Anonymous Coward

Fuck Russia.

Now he'll be a target (Score:2)

by nycsubway ( 79012 )

Hopefully the Russians choose not to go looking for this guy.

Re: (Score:3)

by larwe ( 858929 )

It wouldn't help them to go looking for "a guy". The code is in the world. Nothing can unpublish it. They might DDoS forums where people are talking about how to improve the software, but they can't get the cat back in the bag on this one just by having a few people fall out of windows.

Re: (Score:3)

by Brandano ( 1192819 )

Why should they? First, Ardupilot has been forked countless times already, and second, they probably use it too.

I've been mocked for saying it for years (Score:3)

by Baron_Yam ( 643147 )

Everything you need has been out there for a long time. The reason we're not drowning in a sea of drone-based terror attacks is that most people just want to live and aren't actually interested in killing anyone until they get motivated to do so.

Ukraine's motivated. As impressed as I am by what they've achieved, I'm surprised we haven't seen more autonomous weaponry. The tools already exist to geofence a drone so you can be confident that as it goes on its killing spree, it's doing so in an area you have declared free of invalid targets. A drone dropping silently from altitude to 360 no-scope Russian soldiers as it randomly dances around to make it hard to hit is something I'd expected to happen by now.

Re: (Score:2)

by Vlad_the_Inhaler ( 32958 )

I'd say it's conclusive proof that Open Source is bad for you, or at least bad for Vlad_Putin and his minions.

Re: (Score:2)

by Baron_Yam ( 643147 )

Handguns were once 'the great equalizer', giving the power of a soldier to the common man, and not really requiring a great deal of skill or strength to use. You still need the nerve, and you're still going to be in a dangerous situation.

With a drone, I could have it fly to wait on somebody's roof for them to come home, use license plate and facial recognition for target confirmation, and then shoot them in the face as they walk to their front door.

It's horrifying. It's also equality in a way that handgun

Awesome! (Score:3)

by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 )

My wife and I have been laughing with glee and high-fiving each other over Ukraine having just handed Putin his ass. If what I've read is true, Russia doesn't even have the capability of replacing the destroyed aircraft. Having the feat accomplished via Open Source software is the icing, sprinkles, and candles on the 'Fuck You' cake that Putin is being forced to chow down on. I hope he chokes on it.

Ubomtu? (Score:2)

by greytree ( 7124971 )

Got nothin.

You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.
-- Norman Douglas