Obsolete and old aerial drones supplied by the United States to the Ukrainian Armed Forces have proved so disappointing in the battlefields of eastern Ukraine the Ukrainians have pilloried them as being next to useless.

The drone in question is the AeroVironment RQ-11B Raven, a small hand-launched remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle or SUAV.

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It entered service with the U.S. military in 2006 and is still deployed by the U.S. Army at company level. The 1.9 kg Raven is one of the most widely produced military drones worldwide, with over 19,000 having been supplied to customers.

 The problem with the drones delivered to Ukraine is they operate analog electronic equipment easily jammed and hacked by Russian electronic warfare countermeasures.

The Ukrainians are so frustrated with the continuing failures of the Raven that some military officials want the drones returned to the U.S.

"From the beginning, it was the wrong decision to use these drones in our (war)," said Natan Chazin, an adviser to Ukraine's military and an expert in drone warfare.

The Ravens were delivered to Ukraine as part of U.S. security assistance. Ukraine hoped the Raven would be an effective lightweight and portable reconnaissance drone used widely on the battlefield.

That hasn't been the case, however. Russian countermeasures soon negated the reconnaissance capabilities of the Ravens.

The Ukrainian Air Force told media the Ravens supplied it have a fatal drawback: their video feeds and data, which are in analog format, can easily be jammed by Russians and their separatist allies.

U.S. officials that want to remain anonymous admitted Russia's electronic warfare capabilities were far more sophisticated than expected.

Asked about Ukraine's reaction to the Ravens, one official said it took a lot of time for the drones to reach Ukraine, and that by then "they were much less effective than they would have liked, than we would have liked.

Interestingly, the U.S. Army still uses Ravens but is using the new digital versions instead of the old analog versions flown by the Ukrainian armed forces. Ukraine distributed the Ravens across its armed services.

TagsUkraine, AeroVironment RQ-11B Raven, Ukrainian Air Force, Russia, electronic countermeasures